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And These are Their Names... Identifying the Death March Victims Buried in a Mass Grave in Poland
Yad Vashem And These are Their Names... Identifying the Death March Victims Buried in a Mass Grave in Poland

Walerian Lenczycki

Auschwitz no. 12453

Walerian Lenczycki: Identification photograph taken on arrival at Auschwitz, April 1941 Heinrich Himmler, SS Chief, during a visit to Pawiak prison in Warsaw Pawiak prison, Warsaw Karol Juliusz (Igo) Sym was an Austrian-born Polish actor. Following the German occupation of Poland he became a Gestapo agent. He was killed in Warsaw by the Polish underground on the 7th of March 1941.

Walerian Lenczycki was born on the 15th of December 1901 in Warsaw, Poland. Lenczycki was sent to Auschwitz on the 6th of April 1941 on a transport that included 1,021 prisoners from Pawiak prison in Warsaw.

The Transport
This transport contained, for the most part, actors and directors from the various theatres in Warsaw who were arrested in retaliation for shooting of the cinema and stage actor Karol Juliusz "Igo Sym" on the 7th of March 1941. Sym, an ethnic German who collaborated with the Nazis and served as a Gestapo agent in Warsaw, was shot by the Polish underground (the ZWZ). Among the theater people imprisoned and deported to Auschwitz on this transport were Bronisław Dardziński, Tadeusz Hertman Kański, Stefan Jaracz, Zbigniew Nowakowski-Sawan and Leon Schiller.

Other prisoners sent on this transport were arrested for a variety of reasons: suspicion of sabotage, political activities and black marketeering. The prisoners included lawyers, teachers, priests, army officers, underground activists and others; among them were 39 Jews.

The preparations for sending this transport began on the 4th of April 1941. Prisoners were selected and then returned to their cells, several hours later they were transferred to the prison courtyard and from there were marched to the train station; they were not given any food before departure. The transport arrived at Auschwitz on the night of the 6th of April. The inmates were marched, on foot, to the camp grounds. On arrival the priests and Jews were separated. Following registration, disinfection and provision of clothing the prisoners were transferred to block 18 and later to block 26. Following a period of detention the prisoners were divided between various work groups.


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