photo #6316151

23 April 1941 | For the first time the camp commandant Rudolf Höss, together with the camp commander Karl Fritzsch and a few other SS men, chose – most probably in retaliation for the escape of a prisoner Stanisław Białek – 10 prisoners from Block 2 as hostages and condemned them to starve to death. The selected prisoners included the Polish political prisoners: Marian Batko, a physics teacher at the Odrowąż Gymnasium in Chorzów, who voluntarily stepped out of the line during the selection in place of another inmate; Wincenty Rejowski, Antoni Sufin Suliga, Stefan Otulak, Tadeusz Kustra, Jan Schefler, Franciszek Bobla, Stanisław Opasiak, Adam Giermakowski and Józef Nocko. They were locked up in a cell in the cellar of Block 11 and received nothing to eat or drink. The dark cell was opened every few days to take out the bodies of the deceased prisoners. The first to die was Marian Batko (27 April). Others perished by May 26. (In the picture: Marian Batko)