Czesław Aredzki

After the war, Czesław was reunited with his wife Krystyna in the city of Łódź. They had a son, Jerzy, in 1948. According to Krystyna, Czesław was never himself again after the war and the time in the camps.

In 1954 they divorced and Czesław moved to Zakopane. There he worked as a nature guide and ski instructor in the Tatra Mountains, on the border between Poland and Slovakia. His son Jerzy stayed with Krystyna but visited Czesław during the holidays. Czesław also worked as a guideon bus trips to the museum in the former camp at Auschwitz. The museum was opened in 1947.

In the late 1960s, Czesław decided to leave Poland. His son Jerzy, who was in his twenties, chose to come along. They took the train to Stockholm and got a residence permitin Sweden. Czesław got a job in the central kitchen at Långbro Hospital and worked there for the rest of his life. He saved up for a car so he could travel around Europe and camp after he retired. Three months before his retirement, Czesław fell ill with cancer and he died in Stockholm in 1980.

Jerzy Aredzki has shared his father’s stories with the Swedish Holocaust Museum and has lent letters, photographs and objects.

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