JAN BARAŚ-KOMSKI

Born February 3, 1915 in Bircza, Poland; currently lives in the United States

Background
1934-39, Baraś-Komski studied painting, anatomy, and art history at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts.

Arrest and Deportation to Auschwitz
September 1939 he joined the Polish underground and attempted to escape to France to join the Polish army there.  He was arrested by German troops at the Slovak border and imprisoned for two months at Nowy Sącz and Tarnów.  June 14, 1940, under the name Jan Baraś, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he was assigned prisoner number 564.

Art Produced at Auschwitz
At Auschwitz, he produced portraits for the SS and also created architectural renderings.  In his words: "My profession helped me to survive."

Escape Attempt from Auschwitz
Armed with forged papers under the name Józef Nosek, Baraś-Komski escaped on December 29, 1942, with the assistance of the camp resistance movement.  Re-arrested in January 1943 but not recognized as an escapee from Auschwitz, he was incarcerated in Montelupic prison in Kraków and again deported to Auschwitz, where he received a new prisoner number, 152884.  From there, he was later transferred to Buchenwald, Gross-Rosen, and Dachau concentration camps.

Liberation and After
April 29, 1945, Baraś-Komski was liberated at Dachau.  He lived in a displaced persons camp from 1945 to 1949, the year he immigrated to the United States.  In the States, he has worked as a graphic artist for the Washington Post and, at different points in his postwar career, made paintings about his experiences at Auschwitz.

Bibliography:
Archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.

Methner, Ellen Rosenbush and Bert van Bork.  Auschwitz Eyewitnesses: The Artwork of Jan Komski.  Houston, 1998.

Swiebocka, Teresa, ed.  Auschwitz: A History in Photographs. Oświęcim and Bloomington, Ind., 1993.

Swiebocki, Henryk.  Auschwitz 1940-1945: Studien zur Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz, 5 volumes. Oświęcim, 1999.