Edward Reid

In Memory of Rościsław Plewa (1920–1941)

On this day, we remember Rościsław Plewa, a young Polish student who was murdered by
Germans at the age of twenty in Auschwitz. Imprisoned for nine months and six days, he was not a soldier or a politician, but a student with hopes, dreams, and a future that should have been his.

The N***s reduced him to a prisoner number, but history restores his name. Behind every victim was a human being—a son, a friend, a classmate, a life of immeasurable worth.

May we remember Rościsław Plewa not for how he died, but for the life he was denied, and may his memory endure long after those who sought to erase it.

Eternal memory. 🕯️🇵🇱

Editing by John Cocker.

On this day in 1942, Wiesław Starzyk, a 22 year old Polish paramedic, perished in German Auschwitz after only 38 days of imprisonment. Before the war and occupation reduced him to a number stitched onto striped cloth, he had dedicated himself to saving the lives of others.

Like so many young Poles murdered under German occupation, his future was stolen before it could fully begin. Yet even now, decades later, his face, his name, and his humanity endure. He is remembered not as prisoner 31303 alone, but as Wiesław Starzyk, a son of Poland, whose life mattered.

Edited by John Cocker.