Biographie

Marcin Blaszczak was born in Podlesie in Poland in 1919 where he grew up with his brother Michael.

In April 1940, Marcin Blaszczak was picked up by German soldiers near his hometown. He was taken to Zamosc and Lublin, then deported to Germany. Marcin Blaszcak first had to work for a farmer in Unterweisenborn in the district of Bad Hersfeld. The food supply on this farm was very poor. His persistent hunger led to severe physical exhaustion. Because he was afraid of being unable to work and being killed as a result, he fled from his workplace. In the end he was arrested in Fulda and taken into custody in the local jail. From there, Marcin Blaszczak was transferred to the Breitenau "work education camp" (AEL). Here he had to perform hard physical labour and was mistreated several times. He suffered from severe hunger, feared for his life and endured constant harassment by the guards. Since the farmer whom Marcin Blaszczak had worked for previously attested that he was a good worker, he was released from Breitenau and returned to the very same farmer in Unterweisenborn. Shortly afterwards, he was moved to a baker's family.

After the war, Marcin Blaszczak returned to Poland and worked on the Polish railway. In 1981, he visited the former baker's family where he had worked after his captivity in Breitenau. In the course of this visit, he sought out the places where he was made to work during the war. This resulted in the first contact with the Breitenau project group. Marcin Blaszczak was one of the first contemporary witnesses to be interviewed about his imprisonment in Breitenau, offering a living account of the suffering in the AEL. He visited Germany again in the early 1990s and found the fact that a memorial had been set up in Breitenau to be a positive development. Marcin Blaszczak was only able to visit Breitenau Memorial once before he died in Zlotoryja in 1996 following a stroke.