Extraordinary story of the brave Auschwitz prisoner who escaped with his girlfriend by dressing as an S.S. officer... before reuniting four decades later

Jerzy Bielecki escaped from Auschwitz with Jewish girlfriend Cyla Cybulska

He secretly got complete S.S. uniform and pass to help them escape in 1944

German-speaking Polish inmate reunited with her in 1983 after decades apart

Ms Cybulska moved to New York but they met up thanks to a Polish cleaner

When they reunited he brought 39 red roses for each year they spent apart

This Catholic man holds one of the most incredible concentration camp escape stories of World War Two, after he sneaked his Jewish girlfriend out of Auschwitz in 1944 by dressing up as an S.S. officer.

But it took Jerzy Bielecki, a German-speaking Polish inmate at the same Nazi death camp, 39 years to be reunited with Cyla Cybulska after a chance conversation she had with her cleaner in the 1980s.

On Thursday Mr Bielecki - who was brought to Auschwitz aged just 19 on the false suspicion he was a resistance fighter - died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Nowy Targ, Poland, aged 90.

Amazing story: Jerzy Bielecki, left, a Polish inmate who led his Jewish girlfriend Cyla Cybulska, right, out of Auschwitz in 1944, before they were later reunited 39 years on, died on Thursday aged 90

Mr Bielecki was 19 when the Germans seized him and brought him to the notorious Auschwitz in April 1940 in the first transport of inmates, who were all Poles. He was given number 243.

In July 1944 the 23-year-old Bielecki used his relatively privileged position at the concentration camp to orchestrate a daring escape for both of them.

Ms Cybulska, her parents, two brothers and a younger sister were rounded up in January 1943 in the Lomza ghetto in northern Poland and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Her parents and sister were immediately killed in the gas chambers, but she was sent to work with her brothers. By September, 22-year-old Cybulska was the only one left alive.

Hero: Mr Bielecki - who was brought to Auschwitz aged just 19 on the false suspicion he was a resistance fighter - died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Nowy Targ, Poland, aged 90. He is pictured in May 2010

She had inmate number 29558 tattooed on her left forearm. Ms Cybulska met Mr Bielecki and their love blossomed, making him determined to find a way to escape.

'I felt pain in my backbone, where I was expecting to be shot' Jerzy Bielecki

From a fellow Polish inmate working at a uniform warehouse, Mr Bielecki secretly got a complete S.S. uniform and a pass.

Then dressed as an S.S. officer, he pretended he was taking a Jewish inmate out of the camp for interrogation. He led Ms Cybulska to a side gate, where a sleepy S.S.-man let them go through.

The fear of being gunned down himself reverberated through his first steps of freedom. ‘I felt pain in my backbone, where I was expecting to be shot,’ he said last year in an interview.

Concentration camp: Mr Bielecki was 19 when the Germans seized him and brought him to the notorious Auschwitz in April 1940 in the first transport of inmates, who were all Poles

For more than a week they hid in the fields during the day and marched during the night, until they reached the house of Mr Bielecki's uncle.

RECOGNISED FOR HIS BRAVERY

The Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem awarded Mr Bielecki the Righteous Among the Nations title in 1985 for saving Ms Cybulska.

This is a title awarded by the Holocaust memorial group on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their own lives to save those of Jews.



They were separated there, as the family wanted Mr Bielecki back home in Krakow, and Ms Cybulska was sent to hide with a farm family. They failed to meet back up after the war.

Mr Bielecki stayed in Poland and settled in Nowy Targ, where he raised a family and worked as the director of a school for bus and car mechanics.

Ms Cybulska married a Jewish man, David Zacharowitz, with whom she went to Sweden and then to New York.



Sheer chance allowed them to meet again - in a story almost as amazing as their escape in 1944.



Escape: Dressed as an SS officer, Mr Bielecki pretended he was taking a Jewish inmate out of the camp for interrogation. He led Ms Cybulska to a side gate, where a sleepy SS-man let them go through

While talking with her Polish cleaning woman in 1982, Ms Cybulska related her Auschwitz escape story. The stunned woman said she had heard Mr Bielecki tell the same story on Polish TV.

'He did not think he was a hero, but he was. He will be missed' Stanlee Stahl

Jewish Foundation for the Righteous

She then helped Ms Cybulska find Mr Bielecki in Poland. In the summer of 1983, they met at the Krakow airport. He brought 39 red roses, one for each year they had spent apart.

Ms Cybulska died in New York in 2002. Mr Bielecki is survived by his wife, two daughters, four grand-children and a great-grandson. His daughter Alicja Januchowski, of New York, confirmed his death to the media on Saturday.

‘He did not think he was a hero, but he was,’ Stanlee Stahl, a vice president at the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. ‘He will be missed.’