Former Auschwitz prisoner Henryk Mandelbaum, the last member of the camp Sonderkommando living in Poland, died on June 17 at the age of 85. The Sonderkommando was a group of prisoners forced by the Germans to work in the crematoria and gas chambers.

Mandelbaum was one of those former prisoners who were always willing to meet with visitors at the Auschwitz Memorial. During these encounters, he talked about not only his own tragic experiences, but also his views of the contemporary world. He cooperated frequently with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. In May of this year, he shared his reminiscences with participants in a seminar at the Rafał Lemkin Center. “He was incredibly reliable. He wanted to meet people in every situation. If he had an appointment with a group, he always kept his word. He was outgoing, and contact with people brought him joy,” said Igor Bartosik, head of the Museum Collections Department and a friend of Mandelbaum.

“Henryk Mandelbaum was one of those people who experienced the very worst of Birkenau. He bore witness throughout his life, urging everyone he met to respect life. He knew what evil meant, and he warned against it day in and day out. For me personally, he was proof that people without religious belief can be truly holy,” said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, director of the Museum.

“Mandelbaum called himself a graduate of the university of life. In fact, the scale of his experience is simply unimaginable. He was a magical personality. He attracted people like a magnet,” said Bartosik. “He could talk about even the most difficult topics in a way that everyone could understand. There was no anger or thirst for revenge in him, and he did not judge people. He told me, ‘Remember, people are different, but not all of them are evil and you cannot measure them all by the same standard.’”

Henryk Mandelbaum was born on December 15, 1922 in a poor Polish-Jewish family in Olkusz. He had to go to work at an early age. When his entire family was forced to go to the Dąbrowa Górnicza ghetto in 1940, Henryk went into hiding. His parents were later transferred to the ghetto in Sosnowiec, and deported from there to Auschwitz, where they were murdered in the gas chamber.

Mandelbaum remained in hiding, aided by local people. He risked his life maintaining contacts between the ghetto and the “Aryan side,” delivering food to the imprisoned Jews. He was arrested in April 1944 after someone informed the Germans about him. They held him briefly in jail and then sent him to Auschwitz on April 10. As prisoner number 181970, he was assigned to the Sonderkommando after quarantine. In April 1945, he managed to escape from the evacuation march in the vicinity of Jastrzębia Zdrój. His sister was the only other survivor from among the whole family.

After the war, he spent 16 years managing a branch of a public commercial enterprise. He also bred foxes. After his official retirement in 1972, he continued to drive a freight truck for the next 15 years. He loved traveling, and visited places including Columbia and Canada. He also had an impressive collection of china figurines.

“He was a pleasant, cheerful man. In the worst of circumstances, he remained optimistic and accepted whatever fate threw at him without ever giving up. After what he lived through, he could have been morose and bitter, but he was just the opposite—he bubbled with joy and good humor, because he was happy, above all, to have survived. He was my best friend. I’ll never have another friend like him,” said Bartosik.

Source: http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=8