Józef Żółtek 1912 - 1945

Born 12.2.1912 in Klikuszowa
Died 12.2.1945 in Wien

Biography

Born on February 12, 1912 in the village of Klikuszowa in Poland, house number 34. He was the youngest of seven children of Maciej Żółtek and Magdalena Żółtek née Czyszczoń. He was a farmer by profession, blond haired, 170 cm tall, grey eyes. He became engaged to Marjanna Węglarczyk, who also lived in the village of Klikuszowa.

During World War II, Józef Żółtek was arrested by the Nazis and held in a prison at Montelupich Street in Krakow, Poland. The prison was known for brutal interrogations and tortures of prisoners. The dossier said “confessed.” He was marked as a political prisoner (“Schutzhäftling”).

On April 20, 1943 Józef Żółtek was transported from the Krakow prison directly to Auschwitz concentration camp. The transport included a group of 17 prisoners from the prison in Krakow, numbers 116737 to 116753, and 60 prisoners from the prison in Tarnów. Number 116753 was assigned to Józef.

From the files of the Polish Red Cross, it is known that on May 14, 1943, Józef Żółtek was moved to the prison hospital in Auschwitz. He was diagnosed with pleurisy (lat. pleuritis sicca dextra). He was imprisoned in Block 11 (annotation found on the X-ray hospital card). On August 28, 1943, he was quarantined to prepare for leaving the concentration camp.

After a five-month stay in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Józef Żółtek was deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he stayed from September 3, 1943, marked with prisoner number 34755.

From the files preserved at the archives of Mauthausen Memorial, we know that Józef Żółtek was again moved on September 19, 1943, to the Mauthausen sub-camp Schwechat in Vienna. This is confirmed by a fragment of the “Post Book” (reference number MM/Y43, the abbreviation “Schw.” next to the name means Schwechat). On July 13, 1944, all prisoners from the Vienna-Schwechat camp, including Józef Żółtek, were transported to the Vienna-Floridsdorf sub-camp.

Józef Żółtek died on February 12, 1945, at 11:30 p.m. in the Floridsdorf sub-camp in Vienna – exactly on his 33rd birthday. His death is mentioned in the “Book of the Dead” (germ. “Totenbuch”, refrence number MM/Y46), which the SS kept for documentation purposes. The cause of death was given as “poor circulation due to deterioration of the body's condition”. It should be noted, however, that the death records were falsified, as the SS regularly invented supposedly medical causes of death to cover up the mass murder of prisoners.

Józef's parents died during World War II – his father died in 1941 and his mother in 1942. The fate of his fiancée is unknown.

 

Weronika Dziwińska, relative

Location In room