June 20, 1942: A daring escape out of Auschwitz by prisoners Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanislaw Gustaw Jaster, Jozef Lempart and Eugeniusz Bendera.
They sneaked into a warehouse for the Auschwitz guards and stole SS uniforms and weapons, and then made off with the Camp Commandant's personal Steyr 220 sedan. At the locked main gate, Piechowski (the only escapee who knew German) yelled, "Wake up, you buggers! Open up or I'll open you up!" The guards on duty rushed the car through, thinking the four escapees were angry SS officers.
None of the runaways were ever recaptured, and escapee Jaster smuggled one of Witold Pilecki's intelligence reports with him to the Polish resistance.
"I venture to suggest that the escape of four inmates from Auschwitz in the finest car there, the Camp Commandant's, dressed in SS uniforms, against the background of that hell, could make a truly fine subject for a film," said Witold Pilecki in his report, 'The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.'
Picture: Kazimierz Piechowski survived the war and still lives today in Gdansk, Poland.