Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 94

Hungarian Jews not selected as laborers would be murdered in the gas chambers almost immediately after arrival, May
1944. (Photo from the Auschwitz Album)

the exile Polish army in France, or for no reason
at all. Because the first 30 camp identification
numbers were assigned to the 30 German kapos,
these 728 Polish men were given the numbers 31
to 758. Stanis?aw Ryniak, the first person confined
in Auschwitz, received the number 31; at the age of
24, he was captured in May 1940 because the Nazis
suspected him of being an underground member.
Ignacy Plachta was given the number 758. Of the
original 728 men first transported to Auschwitz,
239 survived, and few still live today.
From the second transport to Auschwitz, Kazimierz Piechowski (number 918) was one of many
boy scouts captured and sent to the camp. On 20
June 1942, Piechowski was the leader of a group
of three other inmates that escaped in the most
daring and successful escape from Auschwitz.
Stealing SS uniforms, weapons, and Höss’s own
car, the group drove out of Auschwitz, impersonating their tormentors, even interacting with real SS
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subordinates. Piechowski’s escape group carried
and delivered one of the first reports on Auschwitz
written by Pilecki.
Even with these arrivals, Auschwitz still was not
fully operational. Because of damaged Auschwitz
barracks, the political Polish prisoners were housed
nearby in a former Polish Tobacco Monopoly building. Moreover, Kazimierz Piechowski (number 918)
adds, “we had to help build it.” Auschwitz was built
and expanded by those who were confined there.
On 14 June 1940, Kazimierz Albin (number 118)
recalled when Höss’s second in command, camp commander SS-Obersturmführer Karl Fritzsch, accosted
him and his fellow first transport members: “This is
Auschwitz Concentration Camp . . . Any resistance
or disobedience will be ruthlessly punished. Anyone
disobeying superiors, or trying to escape, will be
sentenced to death. Young and healthy people don’t
live longer than three months here. Priests one
month, Jews two weeks. There is only one way
November-December 2013

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