Jan Komski(1915-2002) a Polish Christian, was among the first prisoner transport to arrive in Auschwitz German Camp and survived 5 Nazi German Death Camps in WW2.After the war Jan Komski emigrated to the USA and worked for the Washington Post as an illustrator
Number in Auschwitz German Camp: 564 ! He managed to escape and was later captured under different name and sent back to the camp. As an artist and graduate of the Krakow Fine Arts Academy, he sketched and painted scenes from everyday life in the German concentration camps. He survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, and Dachau German death camps. 5 German death camps.
On June 14, 1940, Mr. Komski was in the first group of about 750 prisoners assigned to Auschwitz, in German occupied Poland, on the day it opened. His number, 564, was tattooed on his forearm. On April 29, 1945, he was in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Camp was liberated by the U.S. Army.
“Then I see first one American, and then a second and a third. Within half an hour, the whole camp was decorated with flags of all nations, probably sewn together and hidden for a long time”
General Patton’s boys liberated that camp.
After the war Jan Komski emigrated to the USA and worked for the Washington Post as an illustrator.
Poland’s multi ethnic heritage:http://commonwealth.pl/
Love and escape: Jerzy Bialecki and Cyla Cybulska http://www.keene.edu/cchs/jerzybielecki_story.pdf
Pictures from hell: Artist Jan Komski’s (1915-2002) incarceration in Auschwitz and in other camps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSbbamX7SoU