Oldest Auschwitz survivor dies

on 22/10/2012 15:21:43

The oldest known former prisoner of the Auschwitz death camp has died in Poland at the age of 108.

Antoni Dobrowolski died yesterday in the north-western town of Debno.

The former Polish teacher was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz in 1942 for holding secret classes.

After they invaded Poland in 1939, the Germans banned anything beyond four years of elementary education as they tried to crush Polish culture and the intelligentsia.

Mr Dobrowolski was later moved to the concentration camps of Gross-Rosen and Sachsenhausen, where he was liberated in 1945.

The Germans killed at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz. Most victims were Jews, but many non-Jewish Poles, Roma and others were also murdered.