Maksymilian Niezgoda (pseudonym “Rampola”) was born in Karviná in 1900 (now the Czech Republic). During the Second Republic, he was an official of the Treasury. He first worked in Katowice, and then in the Polish Customs Inspectorate in the Free City of Gdansk. Just before the outbreak of World War II, his workplace was evacuated. He ended up in territory occupied by the Soviets and so managed to avoid captivity. In October 1939 after the invasion of Poland, he arrived in Oświęcim where his wife and her parents had previously lived.
In the spring of 1940, he co-founded the structures of the underground Union of Armed Struggle (later the Home Army) and headed the intelligence desk. His fluent knowledge of German enabled him to take a job in the municipal office in Brzezinka. Thanks to this, additional food ration cards could be obtained. This, in turn, made it possible to supply KL Auschwitz prisoners with food.
After being betrayed, he was arrested along with other conspirators on 7th October 1942. He had learned of the threat a couple of weeks earlier and had even already prepared fake documents useful for a potential escape and subsequent hiding. He chose not to take advantage of this opportunity, however, fearing that the Nazi Germans would take revenge on his family.
He was executed along with other resistance fighters at KL Auschwitz on 25th January 1943.
Fot. Zdjęcie – zbiory MPMZO / archiwum prywatne Marii Grażyny Niezgody