Half a loaf of bread and a cube of margarine - this is the award Tadeusz Pietrzykowski received for his first duel with a German kapo in KL Auschwitz. Then there were more. Hungry, exhausted by overworking, weighing only 40 kg, the boxer repeatedly stood in the camp ring. He fought his life with his fists.
It is not known who and why scratched a drawing of a boxer preparing for a fight on the wall of cell No. 18 in Block 11 (the so-called Death Block). Many people assume that this is the image of the legend of the "camp" boxing, Tadeusz "Teddy" Pietrzykowski, the first master of KL Auschwitz.
Number 77 with steel fists
Born on April 8, 1917 in Warsaw, Pietrzykowski already had the makings of a great boxer in his youth. A charge of the famous Feliks Stamm studied boxing in "Legia". In 1937 he won the title of the champion of Warsaw in the bantamweight scale. The capital press wrote about him that he had "an iron will and fists of steel." He soon proved it, becoming the runner-up of Poland.
Still from the movie "Boxer and Death" (dir. Peter Solan) based on the life of the Polish boxer Tadeusz "Teddy" Pietrzykowski
The promising career of "Teddy" was interrupted by the war. Arrested during an attempt to get to France, he was held by the Germans in several prisons, and finally on June 14, 1940, he was sent with the first transport to "hell on earth" - the Auschwitz camp. He was given the number 77.
From the very first moment, the guards put the prisoners' stamina to the test. Even those who, like Pietrzykowski, were used to heavy physical exertion, quickly lost their strength. Marta Bogacka recalls the memories of Jerzy Bielecki:
Under the guise of forming the allegedly uneven rows, they split the strokes on all sides. They beat on the faces, heads, backs and hands. They kicked in the stomach, in the kidneys, in the shins of the legs. They walked slowly among the strained to attention, terrorized prisoners, searching for new victims for their criminal activities. Dull sounds of blows could be heard constantly, often mixed with the groans of the battered. (…) Blood mixed with sweat stained shirts and sweatshirts.
Pietrzykowski, tortured by the Germans, did not even think that he would soon be able to repay the beautiful tormentors for what they were supposed to do.
"I can handle it and in hell"
The opportunity for this came one day in March 1941, shortly after a new capo had arrived in the camp. Walter Dünning took advantage of the prisoners with love. In a matter of days, over 20 had made them unfit for work. He was said to be a former German middleweight boxing champion.
When Pietrzykowski was offered to fight him, he agreed without hesitation. As he later explained, he was simply hungry, and for the duel, the Germans promised him ... a half a loaf of bread and a cube of margarine. Andrzej Fedorowicz in the book Gladiators from the death camps describes:
The makeshift ring was in the corner of the camp kitchen. As Teddy was inside, he saw the eyes of a dozen kapos fixed on him. (...) Walking through a row of people, each of whom had repeatedly beat him with a club, fist or kick, Pietrzykowski saw mocking smirks on many of their faces mixed with something like admiration (…).
In the bandit hierarchy, kapo Teddy, a would-be artist from Warsaw, could have only two opinions - a tough guy or a complete madman. Regardless of who thought of him, there was no one in the kitchen to bet on him in the fight against Dünning.
And it's hardly surprising. Walter, well-built and nourished, weighing 70 kg, was to fight Pietrzykowski, who (by nature small) lost only 40 kg in less than a year in the camp. However, against all odds, the Polish boxer won.
It is estimated that in total, in Auschwitz, he fought about 40 (according to other sources, up to 60) fights. He only lost once.
Later, he repeatedly proved his skill and endurance in the ring. It is estimated that in total, in Auschwitz, he fought about 40 (according to other sources, up to 60) fights. He only lost once. In 1942, in a secret message to his mother, he wrote:“Today I am the master of all weights in Auschwitz (...). Remember when everyone said - what will become of it? He will not be able to cope in life. I'll be fine in hell. ”
"You were on holiday in Auschwitz"
At first, the torturers viewed Pietrzykowski's successes with respect. They gave him the nickname White Mist and put him in bets to fight against increasingly tougher and larger opponents. At one point, they even suggested that he sign a volkslist (he refused). Eventually, however, the Germans didn't like the fact that prisoner number 77 "beats them as he pleases".
When he defeated a certain Erich in the ring, a slaughterhouse capo with the opinion of a "Pole-killer", on whom the camp doctor Friedrich Entress had put a large sum on, the latter "fed" Teddy with typhus germs. The sick boxer was sent to the hospital block and was to be selected during the next selection. Just before that, however, he was saved by Witold Pilecki himself, who carried him out of the barrack and helped him hide.
Next time, help came from an even more unexpected side. In the spring of 1943, the Auschwitz camp was visited by SS-Hauptsturmführer Albert Lütkemeyer, who before the war was ... a boxing judge. He remembered Teddy from one of the tournaments and decided to bring him to the Neuengamme facility. As described in Death Camp Gladiators Andrzej Fedorowicz:
Neuengamme was a camp to which prisoners from all over Europe were transported at the time to fill in the gaps in slave labor. Due to disease, hunger and exhaustion, 500 people a month were dying in it, and yet the camp continued to grow.
Paradoxically, it became a passport to life for Pietrzykowski, although his fellow inmates warned him:"You were on holiday in Auschwitz". In the new facility he stood in the ring 20 times - and won again.
His last "camp" duel "Teddy" took place in early 1945 in Salzgitter, a branch of KL Neuengamme, where he was transferred a month before the evacuation of the camp. Thanks to this, he survived, as he and other prisoners did not find the ship "Cap Arcona", which was sunk by the allies by mistake.
Tadeusz "Teddy" Pietrzykowski / photo:YouTube.com
After the war, he testified in trials of Nazi criminals. In 1946 he returned to Poland. He graduated from university and worked as a teacher and trainer. He died in April 1991. In his case, the prediction of the journalist from Przegląd Sportowy, who in 1939 wrote about the young "Teddy", came true:
Think this one against the other:ot chuchro. Meanwhile, "chuchro" can hit such blows that many have never dreamed of! And that's why I kindly advise you:take a look at the photography. If you meet this young man with an unblemished face on your way by chance, cautiously give way to him . It is really in your best interest.
Bibliography:
- J. Bielecki, The first transport [in:] J. Bielecki. W. Kielar, W. Koprowska, Memoirs , Publishing House of the State Museum in Oświęcim 1965.
- M. Bogacka, The Boxer from Auschwitz - the fate of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski , Demart 2012.
- A. Fedorowicz, Death Camp Gladiators, Bellona 2020.