Czesław Aredzki

1944 Auschwitz, Polen/Poland 

Czesław wakes up. He has no idea where he is. The last thing he remembers is having a fever and feeling very weak. He tries to move and realises that he is surrounded by other bodies. Dead bodies.

CZESŁAW ARRIVED AT AUSCHWITZ on 3 August 1943 and was assigned prisoner number 138009. Because he was a political prisoner, Czesław could write letters to his relatives and receive post and food parcels.

During his time in Auschwitz, Czesław became seriously ill with typhus and was moved to the hospital barracks. There he eventually became so ill that he lost consciousness. He was carried out of the barracks together with those who had died, but then he woke up. As he struggled to climb out of the pile of corpses, a paramedic and a Jewish doctor spotted him. They took him back to the hospital barracks.

Czesław wrote his last letter from Auschwitz on 8 October 1944. As the Soviet army approached, he was moved between several concentration camps in Germany before being liberated.

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