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As one of the last living witnesses of the Holocaust, Stanislaw Zalewski shares his harrowing experiences to combat denial and ensure the world remembers the atrocities of Auschwitz.
At the age of 14, the war reached Zalewski’s doorstep when the Nazis invaded his homeland. By 17, he was detained by the Gestapo due to his affiliations with the Polish resistance, and shortly after, he was deported to Auschwitz.
Vivid Memories of Dark Times
Now at 100 years old, Zalewski’s memory of his time in the concentration camp remains clear. “It was a dark night when we were led to an empty barrack. We stayed there until morning without food or anything at all,” he recalls. During his brief month in Auschwitz, he witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Nazi extermination efforts.
“My barrack was next to the women’s barrack,” he describes. One morning, they were not allowed to leave the barrack while all the women were taken out and loaded onto trucks like merchandise. The realization that they were being taken to the crematorium dawned on them, and their cries and screams haunt him to this day. “I still hear them when I speak to you, but I try not to listen.” Smoke later confirmed the grim fate of these women.
A Solemn Commemoration
On the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Zalewski, alongside his 80-year-old son, will travel from Warsaw to Auschwitz to participate in the official commemoration ceremony. This act of remembrance is a personal ritual, remembering what he wishes could be forgotten but must never be forgiven.
“It’s forgetting in my own way. I can always bring out the box of memories to remind myself and others. Forget, yes, but never forgive. That’s the distinction,” he explains.
Survival and Silence
Despite the extermination of over 1.1 million people at Auschwitz, Zalewski survived. His skills as a mechanic spared him from a longer stint in Auschwitz; he was transferred to the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps in Austria. His mantra, repeated like a prayer each evening, helped him maintain hope: “I must go back to my family, to my father, to my mother, to my friends. I must return, I must survive.”
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Post-war, Zalewski chose silence as his survival strategy, not speaking or even thinking about his experiences for years. “I packed my memories into a watertight box and sunk it, then I lived normally,” he shares. It wasn’t until journalists approached him that he unpacked these memories to share his narrative, only to seal them away again once the stories were told. “One must learn to do this. It didn’t come easily to me either,” he admits.
Lowell Hagan closely follows international affairs. From geopolitical conflicts to economic cooperation, he provides context to help readers better understand global dynamics. His clear, structured style gives meaning to global news.
