Meet the Man Who Bluffed Himself to Freedom

Kazimierz Piechowski was a Polish Boy Scout when he found himself being detained at Auschwitz in 1942. While there, Kazimierz had the grim task of bringing corpses to the crematorium, as well as other duties around the camp.

But one day, Kazimierz got his hands on a list of prisoners who were to be executed in the coming days, and as it turned out, a close friend of his was among them. Obviously, they needed to escape, but there was a problem. The Nazis would starve 10 inmates for every one person who tried to escape. So there was a possibility that 20 people could die if they were successful. But Kazimierz had an idea…

The Great Escape Plan

If he could get a small group to escape with him, then the blame would fall on the German officer who was in charge of his group. So over the next few days, Kazimierz was able to get two more persons to agree to the plan. This also included stealing Waffen SS uniforms from the laundry and the keys to an officer’s car from the motor pool. But the car they took was not just a random sedan, but a Steyr 220 Sedan belonging to SS-Hauptsturmführer Paul Kreuzmann. But that’s not all; they also carried a report that would later be used in the Trials that took place after the war.

Anyway, now looking the part as German officers, they proceeded to drive through the camp and towards the main gate. All the while, the guard, none the wiser, gave them salutes as they drove past. But as they approached the exit, the gate did not open and they were forced to stop, as a young soldier began to approach.

The Final Bluff

Now obviously this was bad, as who knew what would happen if the soldier realized they were not actually SS. But in the biggest bluff you can ever imagine, Kazimierz (who could speak German), got out of the car and began to yell at the now scared guard. Pointing at his “Rank” within the SS, he demanded the guard open the gate or else… And if you ever heard what a German sounds like when they are pissed off, you would be scared sh+tless too!

The guard, none the wiser and not wanting to piss off a “High Ranking SS Officer”, quickly opened the gate and the former prisoners fled off into the night.

After the Escape

Kazimierz would survive the war, though the Soviets would jail him due to him being a member of the Polish Home Army after his escape. But after serving 7 years, he was released and became an engineer. He got married and lived out his life rather quietly until his death in 2017, at the ripe age of 98. He is still seen as a hero for his actions and even has a song about his escape titled “Kommander’s Car”.

~NC