{"id":8971,"date":"2011-10-25T17:48:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T21:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=8971"},"modified":"2011-10-27T10:52:37","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T14:52:37","slug":"polish-resistance-fighter-who-sneaked-his-jewish-girlfriend-out-of-auschwitz-dead-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/10\/polish-resistance-fighter-who-sneaked-his-jewish-girlfriend-out-of-auschwitz-dead-at-90","title":{"rendered":"Polish resistance fighter who sneaked his Jewish girlfriend out of Auschwitz dead at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jerzy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jerzy Bielecki, a Polish\u00a0resistance\u00a0fighter who\u00a0in 1944 helped his Jewish girlfriend escape the Auschwitz death camp, has died at the age of 90.<\/p>\n

At the camp, as a Catholic, he was able to join the camp’s cadre,\u00a0volunteers who helped\u00a0with chores. Taking advantage of his access to storerooms, he spent several months piecing together an SS uniform, reports the Washington Post.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Pretending he was taking a Jewish inmate out of the camp for interrogation, he and Cyla Cybulska slipped past a sleepy German guard and fled to safety.<\/p>\n

The couple was later separated and spent decades unaware of what fate had befallen\u00a0the other. Then in 1982, when\u00a0she was married and living in New York, she told a Polish cleaning woman\u00a0how she had escaped from\u00a0Auschwitz. The woman\u00a0told how she had\u00a0heard an identical story on the radio, according to the London Daily Mail<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cyla Cybulska in a 1945 photo (Bielecki Family Archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result,\u00a0the two were reunited with Bielecki\u00a0greeting her at Krakow Airport with\u00a039 roses, one marking each year they had been apart. Bielecki was later honored with the “Righteous Among Nations” award\u00a0by Israel’s Yad Vashem Institute and\u00a0was made\u00a0an honorary citizen of the Jewish state, according to the website\u00a0BosNewsLife.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jerzy in 1947 (Bielecki Family Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The story of his daring escape to save the woman he loved has been related in several documentaries and books, including Bielecki’s own autobiography Kto ratuje jedno \u017cycie<\/em> or He Who Saves One Life,<\/em> published in 1990.<\/p>\n

Following his escape he\u00a0joined up with\u00a0the Polish “Home Army” resistance movement.\u00a0After the war, he became a\u00a0social worker and co-founded the Christian Association of Auschwitz Families.<\/p>\n

Bielecki died of natural causes at his home in Nowy Targ, Poland.<\/p>\n

Cybulska died in New York in 2002.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jerzy Bielecki, a Polish\u00a0resistance\u00a0fighter who\u00a0in 1944 helped his Jewish girlfriend escape the Auschwitz death camp, has died at the age of 90. At the camp, as a Catholic, he was able to join the camp’s cadre,\u00a0volunteers who helped\u00a0with chores. 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