Czesław Mordowicz (2 August 1919 – 28 October 2001) was a Polish Jew who, with Arnošt Rosin, escaped from the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

in German-occupied Poland on 27 May 1944, at the height of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. A seven-page report dictated by Mordowicz and Rosin joined the Vrba–Wetzler report and a report by Jerzy Tabeau to become the Auschwitz Protocols, a detailed account of the mass murder taking place inside the camp.

Early life

Mordowicz was born in

Mława Mława (; ''Mlave'') is a town in north-eastern Poland with 30,403 inhabitants in 2020. It is the capital of Mława County. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the battle of Mława was fought to the ...

, Poland, to Anna Wicińska, a local actor, and her husband Herman Mordowicz, a grain merchant.Tu Thanh Ha (4 July 2018)
Auschwitz escapee told the world about Nazi genocide"
''The Globe and Mail''.

Escape from Auschwitz

On 27 May 1944 Mordowicz (prisoner no. 84216) escaped from Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland to Slovakia with Arnošt Rosin (no. 29858), originally from Snina, Slovakia. They arrived in Slovakia on 6 June, and dictated their report to Oskar Krasniansky of the Slovakian Jewish Council in the home of a local man, Boby Reich, in

Liptovský Mikuláš Liptovský Mikuláš (; until 1952 ''Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš'', ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River, about from Bratislava. It lies in the Liptov region, in Podtatranská kotlina, Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tat ...

. In April that year

Rudolf Vrba Rudolf Vrba (born Walter Rosenberg; 11 September 1924 – 27 March 2006) was a Slovak-Jewish biochemist who, as a teenager in 1942, was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Pol ...

and

Alfréd Wetzler Alfréd Israel Wetzler (10 May 1918 – 8 February 1988), who wrote under the alias Jozef Lánik, was a Slovak Jewish writer. He is known for escaping from Auschwitz concentration camp and co-writing the Vrba-Wetzler Report, which helped halt ...

had dictated the Vrba–Wetzler report to Krasniansky after their escape from Auschwitz. Mordowicz and Rosin confirmed the details Vrba and Wetzler had given. They also told Krasniansky that, between 15 and 27 May, 100,000 Hungarian Jews had arrived at Auschwitz and most had been gassed on arrival.

Uprising and re-internment at Auschwitz

In August 1944 Slovak partisans launched an uprising against the collaborationist

Slovak State Slovak may refer to: * Something from, related to, or belonging to Slovakia (''Slovenská republika'') * Slovaks, a Western Slavic ethnic group * Slovak language, an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages * Slovak, Arkan ...

, as a result of which the Germans invaded the country. Mordowicz was among those arrested. He was returned to Auschwitz, but the SS failed to recognize him, which saved his life, and he was sent to another camp, then liberated. Both Mordowicz and Rosin survived the war. Decades later Mordowicz described his efforts to warn other passengers on the train to Auschwitz that they were being taken to their deaths and should try to jump. The passengers began shouting and banging on the doors, he told an interviewer, to which the guards responded by beating him. He then chewed off the tattoo with his prisoner number, hoping the SS at Auschwitz would not be able to identify him.

Early life

Escape from Auschwitz

Uprising and re-internment at Auschwitz

References

Further reading