The Death Brigade – a painting by Jan Komski

The Death Brigade - a painting by Jan Komski

More Jan Komski Paintings

These men were assigned the job of collecting the dead each day and taking them to the crematorium. They were called the Leichenkommando, literal translation: corpse squad.


All Auschwitz paintings and art in this exhibit are copyright © Auschwitz Museum and Jan Komski. All rights reserved.

 


 

During World War II, Jan Komski worked in the resistance movement.

In 1940 he fled Poland and headed toward France to join Sikorski’s Army that was being formed there.

However, he was arrested at the border of Czechoslovakia and imprisoned in Nowy Sącz and Tarnów before being sent to Auschwitz I in the first prisoner transport to that concentration camp.

He was given prisoner number 564 under the name Jon Baraś, due to the forged identification papers he was carrying when arrested