The children of the Majdanek survivor Ryszard Gawełek: Ms Anna Wyroślak and Mr Tomasz Gawełek visited the museum last weekend. During this moving stay they could learn about our archival resources thanks to our historian Marta Grudzińska. They also donated their family mementos – documents, photographs and personal items of their father.

Ryszard Gawełek was born in Vilnius in 1928. At the age of eleven he became engaged in the resistance through his father. He worked as a liaison, smuggled weapons and explosives, distributed undergrounds press and delivered aid parcels to the persecuted families. On 14 February 1942 Ryszard and his mother Antonina were both arrested by the Gestapo and placed at the prison in Radom. He never saw his mom again.

On 8 January 1943 he was deported to the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin.

In the written testimony donated to the museum he recalled:

“We were rushed along the streets of Lublin through frozen snow. We saw compassion on the faces of the passers-by and feared for our fate. Outside the city, as we were marching along a highroad we spotted the site of our torment stretching on the right – MAJDANEK. I was not aware of what was ahead of me. There amidst the fear, beating, hunger, insects, diseases, and corpses would shape my personality of a 15 year-old man.”

He was registered as prisoner no. 8824 and worked at the maintenance kommando and the kitchen barracks at field III. As a young boy he also served as a messenger. During his detention at the prison in Radom he became friends with Zacheusz Pawlak. In his memoir titled “Przeżyłem” [I’ve Survived”] he mentions Ryszard Gawełek on numerous occasions, recalling him as a boy of strong character.

“Rysio Gawełek was arrested as a hostage in place of his father, whom the Gestapo searched for eagerly. His father was deeply engaged in the resistance and was threatened with a death sentence. The Germans used their atrocious methods against that 14 year-old prisoner. Their goal was to establish surnames of all people coming to the boy’s house, and through that to reveal the entire resistance network. Beaten and maltreated, Rysio Gawełek did not break down.”

During the evacuation of Majdanek he was transferred to KL Gross-Rosen in April 1944, and then to KL Mauthausen-Gusen, where he was eventually liberated in May 1945.

Ryszard Gawełek despite traumatic childhood experiences forever remained deeply engaged in preserving the memory of the Majdanek concentration camp prisoners. Together with Wojciech Stan, Zacheusz Pawlak and Stefania Perzanowska they actively worked for the Radom’s unit of the Majdanek Preservation Committee organising exhibitions and giving countless speeches during meetings with the youth.