On 20 June 1942, four prisoners escape Auschwitz through the front gate, disguised as SS officers. 

Among them is the Polish 22-year-old Kazimierz Piechowski. During the first days of the war, he saw how the Germans killed his friends from the boy scouts, who were perceived as potential sources of resistance. Knowing that he will suffer a similar fate if he doesn’t flee, Piechowski decided to run for the Hungarian border to join the Polish forces in exile.

Piechowski was arrested before he could cross the border, but he wasn’t executed as he had feared. Instead, the Germans sent him to various prisons before leaving him at Auschwitz. There, Piechowski was put to work as a construction worker and, once the crematorium was done, as a body hauler. He found new comrades among the camp’s underground resistance and did not think of escape until he learned that his friend Eugeniusz Bendera was on the death list.

Together, they begin plotting their escape, bringing two more men on board. Although they simply aim to save their own skin, they also bring along one of Witold Pilecki’s reports on the camp’s practices to let the world know what is happening at Auschwitz.

Today, the four set their plan in motion. After a final prayer, they pass through the first gate with relative ease by posing as a rubbish haulage detail. Piechowski and two others then head for the warehouse where the SS has its uniforms and weapons stored. They break in through the coal cellars and quickly swap their striped pajamas for shiny SS uniforms, while Bendera, a mechanic, steals a Steyr 220 car belonging to one of the high-ranking camp commandants.

The four escapees drive towards the main gate, praying that the guards will let them through without checking any papers. As they approach the checkpoint, the gate stays shut, and it looks as if their disguise is about to be compromised. In a last-ditch effort to fool the guards, Piechowski shouts at one of them in his best German to hurry and open the gate. Miraculously, it works, and the Steyr races off into the Polish countryside.

Photo: The first gate the escapees had to pass, Auschwitz.

Source: Yad Vashem, 101826