{"id":154438,"date":"2025-09-19T07:54:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154438\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T07:54:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T07:54:29","slug":"tadeusz-pietrzykowski-the-auschwitz-inmate-who-survived-by-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154438\/","title":{"rendered":"Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, The Auschwitz Inmate Who Survived By Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his time at Auschwitz, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski boxed for the guards’ entertainment, earning extra food and privileges which he shared with his fellow prisoners. \"Tadeusz<\/p>\n

Wikimedia CommonsTadeusz \u201cTeddy\u201d Pietrzykowski, the Polish man who boxed for his life at Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

One of the first prisoners taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Nazis was a 23-year-old Polish man by the name of Tadeusz \u201cTeddy\u201d Pietrzykowski. Dubbed \u201cPrisoner 77,\u201d Pietrzykowski faced terrible odds at Auschwitz, where more than a million people would perish between 1940 and 1945. But Pietrzykowski managed to survive, largely by winning dozens of boxing matches. <\/p>\n

The bantamweight vice-champion of Poland and a champion of Warsaw, Pietrzykowski soon realized that boxing could win him extra food and privileges \u2014\u00a0provided that he won his bouts. During his time at Auschwitz, Pietrzykowski engaged in between 40 and 60 matches, purportedly only losing just one of them. And while he boxed for the entertainment of the guards, he also became a symbol of hope for his fellow prisoners. <\/p>\n

This is the incredible true story of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, as seen in the 2020 Polish film The Champion of Auschwitz.<\/p>\n

A Rising Star In Polish Boxing<\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was born on April 8, 1917, in Warsaw, Poland. He was too young to remember World War I<\/a>, which ended some months before his second birthday, and spent most his youth focused on sports. Pietrzykowski was interested in soccer as a teenager, and soon showed his skill as a boxer. <\/p>\n

He trained with a coach named Feliks \u201cPapa\u201d Stamm, who oversaw the development of scores of young boxers. Pietrzykowski took his training seriously, though Polish News<\/a> reports Pietrzykowski\u2019s family thought his talents lay more in art than in boxing or soccer. <\/p>\n

\"Teddy<\/p>\n

Family Photo Archive of Eleonora SzafranPietrzykowski around 1938.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeddy left behind notes about his workouts, which tell us how he was developing tactics and technique,\u201d Dr. Karol Nawrocki, director at the Museum of the Second World War in Gda\u0144s, Poland, told Vice<\/a> in 2020. <\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski showed early promise, competing in matches that placed him among the best in his weight class. While he lacked the size of a heavyweight, his technical skill, sharp footwork, and grit made him a formidable fighter. By 1939, he was considered one of Poland\u2019s young athletes to watch \u2014 until fate intervened. <\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski\u2019s Deportation To Auschwitz<\/p>\n

World War II<\/a> began on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Pietrzykowski promptly put down his boxing gloves down and joined the fight. He joined a light artillery regiment and defended Warsaw against the Nazis and, when the city fell, headed to France, where thousands of his countrymen were forming a new Polish army under General W\u0142adys\u0142aw Sikorski.<\/p>\n

\"German<\/p>\n

Public DomainGerman tanks in the streets of Warsaw in September 1939.<\/p>\n

But Pietrzykowski never made it. <\/p>\n

Instead, the Gestapo arrested the 23-year-old on the Hungaro-Yugoslav border. Not long after that, Pietrzykowski became one of the first transports to the newly established Auschwitz concentration camp<\/a>, where he was branded with the number 77. A Catholic political prisoner, Pietrzykowski was thrust into a new, brutal world that would seek to dehumanize him as much as possible. <\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski didn\u2019t start boxing in Auschwitz right away. At first, he was assigned to work in a carpenter\u2019s shop, and though the labor was backbreaking, his prior fitness helped him persevere. <\/p>\n

All that changed in March 1941. <\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski\u2019s First Fight In Auschwitz
\n\"Champion<\/p>\n

Family Photo Archive of Eleonora SzafranPietrzykowski found that winning boxing matches could earn him extra food, which he shared with his fellow prisoners.<\/p>\n

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski\u2019s first fight came about by chance. In 1941, on a Sunday, Pietrzykowski noticed a large crowd near the camp kitchens. Suddenly, one person from the crowd broke away and called to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them ran towards me and shouted, \u2018Teddy, you want a piece of bread, come quickly. There is a German boxer among us. I\u2019m looking for someone to box with him and beat him. The winner will be rewarded with bread,’\u201d Pietrzykowski recalled of the fight years later<\/a>. \u201cI weighed 42 kg [92 pounds], but decided to fight right away. I saw a perfectly built blonde, holding gloves that we used in winter during our work. When I was seen, the crowd laughed because I was very skinny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietrzykowski\u2019s opponent was Walter D\u00fcning, a German kapo (a prisoner who oversaw other prisoners), who had been a successful boxer before the war. He was a formidable opponent. But despite the odds, Pietrzykowski outmaneuvered D\u00fcning and claimed victory. <\/p>\n

That was the moment Pietrzykowski realized that boxing could secure him special privileges at Auschwitz. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, Walter D\u00fcning lowered his gloves,\u201d Pietrzykowski recalled. \u201cHe stopped fighting and, appreciating my advantage over him, asked which commando I would like to work in. I replied \u2018Tierpfleger\u2019 [animal caretaker] knowing that there could be additional food such as bagasse, swede, and carrots.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Tadeusz<\/p>\n

Family Photo Archive of Eleonora SzafranPietrzykowski fought more than 40 matches during his time in the concentration camp.<\/p>\n

Slowly but surely, Pietrzykowski became known as a boxer. The Auschwitz guards found him amusing and began \u201cenrolling\u201d him in other fights, sometimes against guards, sometimes against other inmates. The guards often placed bets on the outcomes of the fights, but to call the events sport would be a disservice to the word. <\/p>\n

These were exercises in cruelty. <\/p>\n

\u201cTeddy had to fight other inmates \u2013 many of whom were his fellow countrymen \u2013 for food scraps. It was his chance for survival,\u201d Nawrocki explained to Vice. <\/p>\n

Victory often meant extra food rations or slightly less brutal treatment, and these scraps of advantage helped Pietrzykowski endure conditions that killed countless others. <\/p>\n

But as Tadeusz Pietrzykowski won match after match \u2014 he boxed in 40 to 60 contests at Auschwitz, losing just once \u2014 he also became a symbol of hope to his fellow inmates. <\/p>\n

How Tadeusz Pietrzykowski Became A Symbol Of Resistance<\/p>\n

After his initial bout with D\u00fcning, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski went on to fight dozens of matches inside Auschwitz. His opponents were often professional or semi-professional boxers from across occupied Europe, many larger and better nourished. <\/p>\n

Yet Pietrzykowski won almost all of his fights. <\/p>\n

Among prisoners, word of \u201cTeddy\u2019s\u201d victories spread quickly. His triumphs offered them fleeting moments of pride and hope. In a place meant to strip away his dignity, his fists symbolized that resistance, however small, was possible. Pietrzykowski proved that even in Auschwitz, Nazis could be beaten. <\/p>\n

\"Auschwitz<\/p>\n

United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumThe main entrance of Auschwitz. During his time, there Tadeusz Pietrzykowski became a symbol of hope and resistance. <\/p>\n

Indeed, Pietrzykowski was also involved in a different kind of defiance against the Nazis. He\u2019d also began working with the Auschwitz resistance movement, collaborating with Witold Pilecki<\/a>, who had infiltrated the camp voluntarily under a false name to gather evidence of the Nazis\u2019 crimes. <\/p>\n

During his time in Auschwitz, Pietrzykowski participated an assassination attempt of camp commandant Rudolf H\u00f6ss<\/a> by loosening the saddle on H\u00f6ss\u2019 horse. (H\u00f6ss survived, though he broke his leg). Pietrzykowski also killed H\u00f6ss\u2019 dog, which had been trained to attack prisoners. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he and the other prisoners waited for the war to end \u2014\u00a0and for their freedom. <\/p>\n

A Boxer\u2019s Return To Normal Life
\n\"Tadeusz<\/p>\n

Family Photo Archive of Eleonora SzafranPietrzykowski after the war.<\/p>\n

In 1943, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was transferred from Auschwitz to Neuengamme, a concentration camp near Hamburg. Conditions there were equally brutal. Forced labor and starvation claimed thousands of lives, and Pietrzykowski once again had to box for his life. He continued to fight in matches organized by the guards \u2014 around 20 in total \u2014 using his skill as a lifeline. <\/p>\n

Not long after, he was sent to Bergen-Belsen<\/a>, one of the most notorious camps in the Nazi system. By the time of its liberation in April 1945, Bergen-Belsen had become a death trap of starvation and disease, littered with mass graves. But somehow Pietrzykowski survived. His body was ravaged by years of imprisonment, but his will remained unbroken. <\/p>\n

After the liberation, Pietrzykowski returned home to Poland. His boxing career, interrupted by the war and his weakened health, sadly never fully recovered. But he did not abandon the sport completely. Instead, he became a boxing trainer and physical education teacher in Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, helping to shape the lives and careers of other promising fighters. <\/p>\n

His experience had also given him special insight into endurance and discipline, which he passed on to his students. Before he died in 1991 at the age of 74, he often repeated a simple message to his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be,\u201d he would tell them, \u201cis to be the best.\u201d <\/p>\n

After reading about how Tadeusz Pietrzykowski became the \u201cChampion of Auschwitz,\u201d read about another boxer who fought for his life during the Holocaust: Harry Haft<\/a>. Then, learn about Kazimierz Piechowski<\/a> and the Great Auschwitz Escape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his time at Auschwitz, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski boxed for the guards’ entertainment, earning extra food and privileges which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-154438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}