Last member of 1942 escape from Auschwitz dies
WARSAW — A spokesman for the Auschwitz museum says the last surviving member of a group of prisoners who escaped the German Nazi concentration camp in 1942 has died.
Spokesman Pawel Sawicki said Monday that August Kowalczyk died Sunday at a hospice he helped found in the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland where the former camp is located. He was 90 years old.
Mr. Kowalczyk was brought to Auschwitz in December 1940. In June 1942, he was among 50 Polish inmates who tried to flee the camp while working in the fields. Most were killed in the attempt, and only nine escaped. Mr. Kowalczyk was the last known survivor.
He became a popular actor and often told his story to younger people.
Some 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz from 1940-45.
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