Concentration camps. Siberian wastelands. Guarded fortresses. For centuries, Poles managed to escape from places where others wrung their hands. Are there any prisons they cannot escape from?
Trapped and undefeated. They escaped from camps or prisons, from where often no one even tried to escape from them. To reach those who waited for their return, they could walk thousands of kilometers through hostile countries.
By boat, horseback, car, train or on your feet. Weeks, months, and sometimes years of wanderings full of deadly dangers. Thousands of kilometers traveled for one purpose - to prove that a Pole will never be a slave.
In his latest book, Andrzej Fedorowicz describes seven extraordinary escapes of Poles and a spectacular evacuation of Polish gold. Whether it was the eighteenth or twentieth century, the far reaches of Siberia, the Donżon fortress or KL Auschwitz - the heroes were united by the Polish freedom gene.
Maurycy Beniowski - stolen ship with secret files from Kamchatka to Europe.
Ferdynand Ossendowski - from Bolshevik hell through Mongolia and China to Poland. Hollywood movie script ready. The communists searched for a book account of the expedition in libraries and burned it at the stake.
One of the most famous Polish escapees was Ferdynand Ossendowski. His book was very popular.
Jędrzej Giertych - a daring escape of a prisoner from the closely guarded fortress in Srebrna Góra.
Kazimierz Piechowski, Gienek Bendera, Józef Lempart and Stanisław Jaster. False commando escaping from the extermination camp. Prisoners dressed in SS uniforms sneak out of Auschwitz - by the way, taking Pilecki's famous report outside.
The great escape from Sobibór - the biggest escape from a death camp during World War II.
Bronisław Szeremeta - from the Soviet labor camp through the wild taiga to the Polish underground in Lviv.
Wanda Pawłowska - the mother's love overcame the Soviet security.
Escape " golden convoy ” - an epic story about the evacuation of Polish gold reserves in September 1939
We recommend the book by Andrzej Fedorowicz "The famous escapes of Poles" , which was released by the Fronda Publishing House.
The heroes of these extraordinary stories were driven by different feelings and motivations. Wanda Pawłowska fled Kazakhstan because she missed her son. Maurycy Beniowski was a proud Polish nobleman whose honor did not allow him to come to terms with the idea of captivity somewhere on the edge of the world forgotten by God and people. Kazimierz Piechowski decided to prove that it is possible to overcome the inhumane system and escape from the place whose name still inspires terror - Auschwitz. Faith, love, determination and a sense of duty drove those who risked their lives to accomplish seemingly impossible things.
But for the plan to succeed, knowledge and intelligence were also needed. Descriptions of preparations for escapes from the Srebrna Góra fortress or KL Auschwitz are ready-made scenarios of sensational films; it is hard to believe that they have not been created so far. Sometimes, in addition to cleverness, you also needed the will to fight. Maurycy Beniowski and his companions in exile, Jewish prisoners of the death camp in Sobibór or AK-prisoners of the Soviet NKVD from Skrobów had to stir up armed revolts and win victories before they could taste freedom again.
Each of these escapes was different. Rufin Piotrowski traveled five thousand kilometers from Siberia alone. Bronisław Szeremeta and Ferdynand Ossendowski could count on the support of one or more comrades. The removal from Poland in September 1939 of the huge treasure - gold reserves worth tens of millions of dollars - required a large-scale, coordinated action by many people.
Kazimierz Piechowski and his companions became the most famous fugitives from Auschwitz.
And yet all the described events have something in common. It is a deep belief that being a Pole cannot be reconciled with passive fatalism . The heroes of this book are only a handful of the vast crowd of people who were ready for the greatest sacrifice and risk for their freedom. Some succeeded, others failed, but it's worth knowing that our history was also written by famous refugees.
Really, you had to be unlucky to get a Pole to watch over…
There are no prisons from which Poles would not be able to escape.
Get to know the fascinating stories of famous Polish refugees:
