Auschwitz survivor Edmund Szewczyk dies

Szewczyk was imprisoned at the camp in the summer of 1940, in one of the first transports of Poles to the site.

Szewczyk had taken part in the defence of Poland in 1939, but it was for his subsequent resistance work with the Polish Scouts that he was arrested by the Germans.

After a brief internment in Chorzow, Silesia, he was dispatched to Auschwitz, where he was given the number 1498.

Szewczyk endured a year and a half at the camp, and in January 1942 was fortunate to be released.

“After the war he was actively involved in cultivating the memory of Poles [interned] in Auschwitz,” said Grzegorz Rosengarten, chairman of the Christian Association of Auschwitz Families.

Szewczyk was ultimately decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest honours.

Approximately one million people died at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex. The vast majority were ethnic Jews. Over 100,000 ethnic Poles died at the camp, alongside thousands of Roma, Russian prisoners of war among others. (nh/pg)