Jerzy Tabeau

Jerzy Tabeau (18 December 1918 in Zabłotów–11 May 2012) was a Polish medical student who was one of the first escapees from Auschwitz to give a fully detailed report on the genocide occurring there to the outside world. First reports in early 1942 had been made by the Polish officer Witold Pilecki. Tabeau's report was known as that of the "Polish major" in the . After the war he became a noted cardiologist in Kraków, until his retirement.

Tabeau was a member of Związek Walki Zbrojnej (ZWZ) and had worked in the Polish underground under the pseudonym "Jerzy Wesołowski" in Kraków, distributing underground press. He was captured and taken to the Gestapo's Montelupich Prison in Kraków. On 26 March 1942 he was transferred to Auschwitz, and - still under his false name - registered under the number 27273. He soon fell ill with pneumonia and pleurisy, and was placed in the camp hospital. After recovering he joined the hospital staff as a male nurse. In the summer of 1942 he came down with typhus and was selected by Nazi doctor Dr. Josef Klehr to be included in the list of patients to be killed in the gas chambers. However, thanks to intervention by the Polish block elder, Alfred Stossel, he managed to escape death.

Tabeau escaped with another Polish inmate, Roman Cieliczko, on 19 November 1943. The escape was pre-planned in July 1943 and originally intended to have five prisoners escape. As Cieliczko was not in the camp under a pseudonym, it was essential to first get a warning to Cieliczko's mother in Zakopane to enable her to hide. Escapees' relatives were often taken in their place. On 14 July 1943 a message was sent to Cieliczko's mother to go into hiding. Tabeau and Cieliczko escaped by cutting the camp's wire fence. They made their way to the village of Goczałkowice where local Resistance welcomed them, then continued on to Zakopane and stayed with friends of Cieliczko. Tabeau boarded a freight train to Kraków, while Cieliczko joined a partisan unit but was killed by German troops in a sabotage operation three months later. Tabeau contacted Teresa Lasocka-Estreicher, and later joined the underground Kraków PPS. In December 1943 Tabeau proceeded to prepare a report about the camp. The work was completed in early 1944.

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