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Oldest Polish survivor of Auschwitz dies at 108 Posted by on Oct 23, 2012 in Current News

Antoni Dobrowolski, who was the oldest Polish survivor of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, died at the age of 108 on Sunday.

Dobrowolski, a former teacher, was arrested in the southern Polish city of Radom on June 6 1942, and brought to the Auschwitz death camp immediately afterwards. He was moved on to Gross-Rosen camp and finally to Sachsenhausen, where he was freed when the war ended.

Dobrowolski, who was not Jewish, was detained because he belonged to a forbidden teachers’ organization that flouted a Nazi ban by teaching primary school students about Polish history.

When the war ended, Dobrowolski moved to the small city of Dębno, where he was for many years headmaster of a local high school.

During Nazi Germany’s World War Two occupation of Poland, the Nazis killed some 1.5 million people in Auschwitz, located near the Polish village Oświęcim. Most those killed were Jewish.

The German occupation of Poland resulted in the deaths of almost 20 percent of the population and over 90 percent of the country’s Jewish minority.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

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About the Author: Kasia

My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.


Comments:

  1. Marlena:

    Do autora artykulu: prosze sobie sprawdzic, w ktorej czesc Polski znajduje sie Radom? Na pewno nie w poludniowej…

  2. Fran:

    Amazing that he lived so long after going thru all that. Tough guy!