Oldest Auschwitz Survivor, Antoni Dobrowolski, Dies at 108

image
Author: Matt Metzner
Published: 23 Oct, 2012
Updated: 17 Oct, 2022
1 min read
Credit: Time.com

Oldest Auschwitz Survivor Dies at 108

On Sunday the world lost Antoni Dobrowolski, the oldest known survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mr. Dobrowolski passed away in the Polish town of Debno at age 108.

Antoni Dobrowolski was imprisoned by the Germans in 1942 after being arrested by the Gestapo. Prior to being moved to Auschwitz, he was imprisoned in the concentration camps of Gross-Rosen and Sachenhausen, according to the Auschwitz museum.

In Dobrowolski’s case he was sent to Auschwitz, the notorious death camp also known as Birkenau. His fate was rare, as an estimated 1.1 million people were killed in the camp between 1940 and 1945.

Dobrowolski’s capture and imprisonment was a part of a much larger effort to arrest those caught educating Polish children.

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, sparking WWII, the German occupiers banned all education of the Poles beyond four years of elementary education. The tactic was a portion of a larger strategy to use the Poles as a slave race.

Immediately an underground movement began to teach Polish children and those involved in teaching the students were sent to concentration camps or prisons.

Dobrowolski was arrested for educating young students, but returned to teaching after the war ended.

Following the war, Antoni Dobrowolski moved to Debno where he worked as a Polish-language teacher and principal at an elementary school and later at a high school.

IVP Donate

He will be buried in Debno on Wednesday.

Latest articles

Cartoon image of Cuomo and Adams running into each other with cars.
Adams and Cuomo Power Players Play Chicken With New York Elections
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are currently playing a game of chicken with each other – leveraging the city’s electoral system to pressure the other to quit the race. The question is: Who will blink first? Or… are they headed for a collision?...
14 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Open Primary NYC
5 Influential Forces in NYC that Threaten the Success of Open Primaries
New York City’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is considering a proposal to adopt a nonpartisan “Top Two” open primary system, which would allow the city’s 1.1 million independent voters to cast a ballot in primary elections they pay for....
14 Jul, 2025
-
13 min read
Tyson points at Trump with a marijuana leaf behind him.
Mike Tyson Calls Out Donald Trump to Make Good on Cannabis Rescheduling Promise
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion known as “Iron Mike,” is calling on President Donald Trump to make good on a campaign promise to reclassify cannabis under federal law....
11 Jul, 2025
-
2 min read