Tadeusz Sobolewicz

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Tadeusz Sobolewicz (born March 26, 1925 in Poznan , † October 28, 2015 in Krakow ) was a Polish actor and survivor of six concentration camps .

Life

Tadeusz Sobolewicz was born the son of a major in the Polish army . He attended the Paderewski-Gymnasium in his hometown and was a scout.

After the occupation of Poland by the Wehrmacht, he joined the resistance , as did his father. Both were u. a. entrusted with forwarding reports and instructions to units in the underground. When he and his father were about to be arrested for the first time, they narrowly escaped. Hiding and living under a false name, Tadeusz Sobolewicz was arrested by the Gestapo on September 1, 1941 for treason . Beatings in the prison attempted to find out other names of resistance fighters from him. He did not reveal anything and, while he was being taken away, saw his father also being brought for questioning. Finally he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he was tattooed with the number 23053.

From there he was transferred to various concentration camps to work assignments, such as Buchenwald , Leipzig, Flossenburg and its satellite camp Mülsen , where he narrowly escaped death with severe burns, as well as the "Colosseum" satellite camp in Regensburg . This sub-camp was set up in a dance hall; Wood chips were scattered on the floor, and there were no beds. The command consisted of 400 men of different nationalities who arrived on March 19, 1945 and were used to clean up the station. Precise bombing by the Allies had destroyed the tracks, so that the transport routes were cut off. The emaciated men were hardly able to cope with the strenuous physical exertion, and many died of exhaustion. Tadeusz Sobolewicz was lucky - he was able to report to the kitchen service. His job consisted of making soup and distributing bread rations. Presumably this position helped him to regain his strength and to heal his severe burns. On April 23, the “evacuation” of the sub-camp took place. The death march led through the Upper Palatinate to Laufen an der Salzach and killed many prisoners.

In his opinion, he owed his survival, in addition to many happy circumstances, to his strong will to survive and the help of God and his mother, to whom he also returned after the war. His father died in Auschwitz while he was also interned there. In freedom he became an actor, which helped him to process his experiences (as far as possible). He played u. a. in triumph of the spirit an SS-Obersturmbannführer .

He reported to numerous groups - mostly on study trips to Auschwitz - about his experiences and life. His work Back from Hell told his life from the beginning of the Second World War to his regained freedom. Sobolewicz saw Auschwitz as a never-to-be-forgotten warning that something like this would never happen again. He often quoted prisoners who had just been removed and who shouted that sentence to him: “Comrades! You must not forget that our death must be a warning to other people! " He often ended with the words: " Accept that - your task is clear ...! "

Fonts

  • Back from the beyond. Publishing department of the Auschwitz State Museum, Oswiecim 1993, ISBN 83-85047-09-3 .
  • Back from Hell - From the arbitrariness of survival in the concentration camp. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-14179-6 .

literature

  • Sylvia Seifert: The Colosseum subcamp. In: Encounters with former forced laborers. Edited by pax christi and Evangelisches Bildungswerk Regensburg. edition buntehunde, Regensburg 2003. ISBN 3-934941-07-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tadeusz Sobolewicz is dead - an obituary
personal data
SURNAME Sobolewicz, Tadeusz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Poses
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 2015
Place of death Krakow , Poland