Jerzy Tabeau

Who is Jerzy Tabeau?

Jerzy Tabeau was a Polish medical student who was one of the first escapees from Auschwitz to give a fully detailed report on the genocide there to the outside world. First reports in early 1942 had been made by the Polish officer Witold Pilecki. Tabeau's report was known as that of the "Polish major" in the Auschwitz Protocols. After the war he became a noted cardiologist in Kraków, till his retirement.

Tabeau was a member of Związek Walki Zbrojnej and had worked in the underground under the pseudonym "Jerzy Wesołowski" in Kraków, distributing underground press. He was captured and taken the Gestapo's Montelupich Prison in Kraków. Then on 26 March 1942 he was transferred to Auschwitz, and - still under his false name - registered under number 27273. He soon fell ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, and was placed in the camp hospital. After recovering he joined the hospital staff as a male nurse. In the summer of 1942 came down with typhus and was selected by Nazi doctor Dr. Josef Klehr to be included in the list of patients to be killed in the gas chambers. However, thanks to intervention by the Polish block elder, Alfred Stossel, he managed to escape death.