Jan Jakuczek (pseud. „Zaolziański”) – was born in 1897 in Michalkowice in Zaolzie (now Czech Republic). During World War I he served in Józef Piłsudski’s Polish Legions. He was also a Silesian insurgent.
After Zaolzie was occupied by Czechoslovakia in 1920, the Jakuczek family was forced to leave. They settled in Oświęcim in a barrack settlement in what is now the Zasole neighbourhood.
He joined the underground movement at the very beginning of the German occupation. As a reserve sergeant, he became commander of the Oświęcim branch of the Home Army’s Union of Armed Struggle. From the moment that KL Auschwitz was established, the primary goal of the local structures of this organisation was to help the prisoners.
He was arrested on 7 October 1942, after a Gestapo agent, Stanisław Dembowicz, infiltrated the resistance movement and betrayed him. Several dozen people were arrested at the same time, including reserve lieutenant Alojzy Banaś, commander of the Oświęcim district unit of the Home Army.
Jan Jakuczek was imprisoned in Mysłowice and then sent to KL Auschwitz, where he was shot on 25 January 1943.
Photograph: Collection of Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents / private archives of Mieczysław Jakuczek