name is Jerzy Bielecki, and im a polish catholic

who experienced the dark and torturous so called

work detail in Auschwitz. Yes you heard that right, I
am catholic, not jewish. It all began when I was
suspected of helping the polish resistance. I was fully
aware of the war and what was happening to the
jews in my surrounding city, but I did not expect to
be accused of helping the polish resistance. The
germans were just looking for examples to make out
of people to show their strength.
My

One night the germans came into our town and told
me to come with them. They took me captive and led
me and a group of jews to the city square. They just
held us there until we could smell burning. While we
were all gathered together, the soldiers had gone
through the town and doused houses with kerosene
and eventually lit them on fire. The fires spread to
other houses and people were running around
frantically everywhere. Since everyone was running
to get water in an attempt to put out the engulfed
houses, we were able to go out into the streets and
look for our families without the soldiers noticing. I
found my wife and she said our house had not been
set on fire, but most everyone had lost their homes.
A german soldier passed us and recognized me. He
yelled something at me and fired a shot into the air.
Then he looked at my wife and pointed the gun at
her. Im not sure what he was saying but my lack of
responsiveness angered him and he shot my wife in
the neck. I lunged at him and tried to overtake him
and steal his weapon but he had knocked me out
with a swift swing of the butt of his gun.

A few hours had passed and when I woke up my

vision was blurry and my head hurt so bad that I
began to vomit everywhere. Once I had finished and
my vision started to return, I looked around to see
that I was on a train full of polish jews and some non
jewish townspeople, who also were accused of
helping the resistance. They were all badly beaten
too. The train car was empty of seats and benches, it
was like the kind used to transport farm animals.
That is what I felt like, a farm animal who was
helpless to the armed soldiers that we could hear
laughing in the car behind us.
We finally arrived to Auschwitz although at the time
we had no idea of where we were. I can remember
the big doors on the train opening and light
swallowing up the inside of the train car. A german
soldier yelled in broken polish Get off the train you
stupid dogs and we slowly stood to our feet. As we
were walking away from the train I heard a prisoner
yell and then two gunshots rang out. I looked back to
see who it was, and I was shocked and stunned at
the sight. He was laying on the ground with two
bullet holes, one in his head and one on his chest. He
must have not been able to stand on his own, his
toes were crushed and his leg was bleeding perfusely
on the train.
Months went by of little food, freezing cold
temperatures, and 16 hour work days with no break.
If we were caught praying they would take you to a
big black building which no one had ever returned
from. I later learned that this was a gas chamber. The
work they had us do was specific to our gender and

age. The older jews were sewing and cooking food

while the young girls were cleaning and sweeping.
The middle aged men like myself were shoveling coal
and building more living spaces for the expanding
camp. At one point it was so crowded that the
soldiers were forced to just go and kill as many
people as they could. We had to dig the ditches that
the bodies were placed in. I had buried some of my
friends from my childhood, that was a terrible sight
and made the work take a toll on your mind. Some
people went crazy. One night, myself and three
others decided to make a run for the forest. We had
no clue what kind of savage animals we would run
into, we had no way of getting food or clean water,
but the camp was worse than what mother nature
could throw at us. We woke up at a very late time in
the night and snuck out to the fences. One of the
men who was with us was spotted and the soldiers
opened fire on him. He hadnt even made it near the
fence but we could see him walking down along the
buildings, trying to stay out of the spotlight. When
the alarm went off, we took advantage of the loud
noise, climbed the fence, and ran. Eventually we
were too tired and weak to keep running. We had no
food, water, or extra clothing so one of the men went
back. He was walking back to his death. The
remaining two, myself and one other jewish man,
kept going. We reached a river and followed it north
in hopes of finding a town. We stopped in what
seemed to be a nice place to get some rest. When I
awoke, he was gone. His shirt was laying where he
had been laying when I fell asleep, but he was no
where to be found. I decided to wait until there was
more light, I thought he had ventured to go find food

or water, but as the sun rose, he was still not back. I

left his shirt there, it might have been left there to
see if anyone stumbled upon it and took it. I finally
made it to a town, which ironically was being run by
the polish resistance. I was welcomed and sent to
their medical tent for treatment for broken bones and
starvation.