Tadeusz Witkowski

Tadeusz Witkowski (4 November 1921 – 24 September 2003) was a Polish survivor of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Arrested in German-occupied Poland in 1940, he was deported to Sachsenhausen, where he remained imprisoned for several years before being transferred in 1945 through the camp system of Mauthausen-Gusen, Amstetten, and Ebensee. He survived the final months of the war and was liberated by American troops in May 1945.[1]

Imprisonment during the Second World War

Witkowski was arrested in Rzeszów, Poland, in 1940 during the German occupation and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. According to survivor-related documentation and memorial material, he was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen from 10 August 1940 to 26 February 1945. Later testimony connected with his family also states that he was housed in Block 46 during part of his imprisonment.[2]

During his imprisonment, Witkowski was subjected to forced labour. Material produced by his son, the artist George Saxon, states that Witkowski was assigned to the camp’s shoe-testing track, where prisoners were forced to march long distances under extreme conditions while carrying heavy loads. This labour formed part of the wider system of punishment and exploitation at Sachsenhausen.[3]

In 1944, Witkowski and fellow prisoner Anton Engermann reportedly hid a written message in a bottle inside a wall they had built while working in the camp’s construction detail. The message remained undiscovered until 2003, when it was found during construction work at the Sachsenhausen memorial site. Contemporary reporting described the find as an unusual and important discovery, and later reports by the memorial foundation noted that the identification of Witkowski was made possible through public attention to the case.[4][5]

Transfer and liberation

As the war drew to a close, Witkowski was transferred out of Sachsenhausen on 26 February 1945 to the Mauthausen-Gusen camp complex. He was then moved to Amstetten and later to Ebensee, where he was held until the end of the war. Sources connected to survivor remembrance projects state that he was liberated by soldiers of the U.S. 80th Infantry Division on 6 or 7 May 1945.[6]

Later remembrance and legacy

Witkowski died on 24 September 2003. In the years after his death, his experiences became part of memorial and artistic work undertaken by his son George Saxon, whose projects have explored the intergenerational impact of Nazi persecution and the memory of Sachsenhausen. These works include reflections on Block 46 and on the shoe-testing track, linking Witkowski’s imprisonment to broader questions of trauma, remembrance, and postwar family history.[7][8]

His story has also been cited in programming and memorial initiatives focused on the descendants of Sachsenhausen prisoners, helping to preserve individual testimony within the larger history of the camp.[9]

References

  1. ^ "DS001 – Tadeusz Witkowski". Descendants Stuff. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  2. ^ "Sachsenhausen – Die Kinder der Überlebenden". 3sat. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  3. ^ "Shoe Test #2". Voices of the Next Generations. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  4. ^ "KZ-Brief nach 59 Jahren gefunden". Die Tageszeitung. 2003. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  5. ^ "Jahresbericht 2005–2009" (PDF). Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  6. ^ "DS001 – Tadeusz Witkowski". Descendants Stuff. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  7. ^ "DS001 – Tadeusz Witkowski". Descendants Stuff. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  8. ^ "Block 46". Voices of the Next Generations. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
  9. ^ "Sachsenhausen – Die Kinder der Überlebenden". 3sat. Retrieved 16 March 2026.
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