|
Józef Paczyński
Józef Paczyński (29 January 1920 – 26 April 2015)[1] was a Polish man who was known for having been the personal barber of Rudolf Höss during the time he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. BiographyAt the age of 19, Paczyński was captured by the Nazis when trying to cross into Slovakia to join Polish freedom fighters in France.[2] In June 1940, he was transported to Auschwitz, where he was assigned prisoner number 121.[3] At the camp, he was assigned to work in a barbershop. One day, Höss visited the shop and chose Paczyński to come to Höss's home at the edge of the camp to cut his hair.[3] Paczyński continued to cut Höss's hair weekly for nearly four years, during which time Höss never spoke to him.[3] He has said that although he could have used his tools to slit Höss's throat during this time, he did not, because he and many others would have been killed as a consequence.[4] He was moved from Auschwitz to Loslau on 18 January 1945, making him one of the longest-surviving prisoners in the camp.[3] After being moved, he was later liberated by American troops in Germany.[3] After the war, he became a mechanical engineer and teacher.[3] In 2001, he received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (English: Order of Rebirth of Poland).[2] He was also awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.[5] Paczyński died on 26 April 2015, at the age of 95.[2] He was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery, Kraków.[6] References
Information related to Józef Paczyński |
||||||||||||||||||||
