原作者：
来源I escaped from Auschwitz 奥斯维辛集中营幸存者回忆录
译者danag
卡兹米尔兹•佩特罗夫斯基 2011年 （图片来源：Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian）
On 20 June 1942, the SS guard stationed at the exit to Auschwitz was frightened. In front of him was the car of Rudolph Höss, the commandant of the infamous concentration camp. Inside were four armed SS men, one of whom – an Untersturmführer, or second lieutenant, was shouting and swearing at him.
1942年6月20号这天，守卫在奥斯维辛集中营大门口的党卫军士兵给吓坏了：鲁道夫•胡斯的车就在他的面前——胡斯是这座臭名昭著的集中营的指挥官。车里有四个全副武装的党卫军，其中一个少尉正朝他大喊大叫，骂骂咧咧。
“Wake up, you buggers!” the officer screamed in German. “Open up or I’ll open you up!” Terrified, the guard scrambled to raise the barrier, allowing the powerful motor to pass through and drive away.
“醒一醒，你这个XX！”那个军官用德语喊道：“快打开，要不我就把你打开花！”这个卫兵吓坏了，匆忙升起路障，让这辆马力十足的车过去，开远了。
Yet had he looked closer, the guard would have noticed something strange: the men were sweating and ashen-faced with fear. For far from being Nazis, the men were Polish prisoners in stolen uniforms and a misappropriated car, who had just made one of the most audacious escapes in the history of Auschwitz. And the architect of the plot, the second lieutenant, was a boy scout, to whom the association’s motto “Be prepared” had become a lifeline.
然而，要是他离近点看，就会注意到一些奇怪的地方：这几个人浑身冒汗，脸色因害怕而变得灰白。原来他们根本不是纳粹分子，而是穿着偷来的军装、开着偷来的汽车的波兰囚犯。他们刚刚成功地逃脱，算得上是奥斯维辛集中营历史上最大胆的逃跑行动之一。而行动的策划者——那个少尉，则是一名男童子军。对他来说，童子军的座右铭“时刻准备着”成了他的救生圈。
Almost 70 years later, prisoner 918 is holding forth in the home of the scouting association, Baden Powell House in London. At 91, he is impeccably dressed, with a face as wrinkle-free as his well-ironed shirt. As he accepts the ceremonial neckerchief from a shy girl scout from Lancashire, he is as straight-backed as any of the teenagers on parade. In the UK as the guest of a British singer, Katy Carr, who has written a song about his experiences, he is thrilled when the scouts and guides join her to sing for him. Yet in between the traditional trappings of a jamboree, Kazimierz Piechowski, or Kazik as he likes to be called, will tell them a story few in the UK have heard – how, during Nazi occupation, scouts their age were murdered in the streets, while others like him were sent to concentration camps to witness the horror of Hitler’s Final Solution.
历史过去了近70年，918号囚犯正在童子军的发源地——伦敦的贝登堡之家侃侃而谈。虽然已是91岁高龄，但他的衣着无可挑剔，脸上就像他精心熨烫的衬衣一样，看不到一丝皱纹。当他从一个害羞的兰开夏女童子军那里接受仪式领巾的时候，站得如同队伍中的任何一个年轻人一样笔直。他到那里是应英国歌手凯蒂•卡尔之邀，凯蒂根据他的经历创作了一首歌曲。当童子军和领队们同凯蒂一起为他放声高歌时，他激动不已。然而，在童子军大会传统的装饰环绕下，卡兹米尔兹•佩特罗夫斯基，或者说卡兹卡——他喜欢人们这么叫他，将向他们讲述一个在英国几乎没人听到过的故事，那就是在纳粹势力统治之下，年龄与他们相仿的童子军怎样在街头被杀害，还有的像他一样怎样被关进集中营，亲眼目睹了希特勒恐怖的“终极解决方案”。
Piechowski had a happy childhood in the town of Tczew, swimming with friends in the nearby river Vistula or playing with bows and arrows in the park with his two brothers. His family were middle class and his father worked on the railways. When he was 10, Piechowski decided to join the scouts – an act that would alter his life for ever. The youth association was flourishing in Poland, a newly independent state set up after the first world war, with a strong focus on patriotism, “toughness” and brotherhood. “I joined because I was patriotic,” he remembers. “And when I arrived home, my mother was crying a little bit and said to me: ‘I am so happy you are on the right way.'”
佩特罗夫斯基在波兰的特切夫镇度过了快乐的童年，同伙伴们在附近的维斯杜拉河里游泳，或是同两个兄弟到附近的公园里拉弓射箭。他家属于中产阶级，父亲在铁路上工作。在10岁那年，他决定加入童子军——这一行动永远改变了他的生活。当时波兰于一战之后刚刚独立，尤其强调爱国、“坚韧”和手足之情，童子军这一青年组织在当时大行其道。“我参加是因为我很爱国。”他回忆道：“当我回到家，母亲有些落泪地对我说：‘我真高兴你选择了正确的道路。’”
When the Nazis invaded the country nine years later, in 1939, the scouting movement was seen by the invaders as a symbol of nationalism – and a potential source of resistance. “I was 19 when the war broke out,” Piechowski says. “Four days after Germany declared war, they arrived in Tczew. They started shooting the scouts.” Among those rounded up and killed were Piechowski’s childhood friends, and the teenager was terrified. “I knew that, sooner or later, I would also be killed,” he says, “so I decided to run away.”
9年后的1939年，当纳粹分子侵略波兰时，视童子军运动为民族主义的象征——也是一股潜在的反抗力量。“战争爆发时我19岁。” 佩特罗夫斯基说，“德国人在宣战之后四天就抵达了特切夫，他们朝童子军开枪。”那些被围捕和杀害的人中，就有佩特罗夫斯基儿时的伙伴，这令年轻的他十分恐惧。“我知道，早晚我也会被杀死的，于是决定逃跑。”
He tried to flee across the Hungarian border, a route used by other scouts making their way to France to fight in the Free Polish forces there, only to be caught at the crossing. After eight months in various prisons he was sent to Auschwitz.
他试图像其他童子军一样越过匈牙利边界，跑到法国去，加入那里的“解放波兰”武装力量的战斗，却在边境上被捕了。接下来的八个月里，他被从一个监狱转到另个一监狱，最后被送到了奥斯维辛。
“We were only the second transportation to the camp,” Piechowski says, “and we had to help build it.” The old collection of buildings that made up the original concentration camp was not big enough to house all those caught in mass arrests, so inmates were forced to work 12- to 15-hour days to construct a new camp next door that would become notorious as the Nazis’ biggest death camp.
“我们是被送到那里的第二批人，不得不参与集中营的修建。” 佩特罗夫斯基说。最初集中营中的那些老建筑不够大，容纳不下在大规模逮捕中抓来的人，于是犯人们被迫每天工作12到15个小时，在隔壁建造一座新营区，这里就是后来臭名昭著的、纳粹最大的死亡营。
“For the first three months, we were all in complete shock,” says Piechowski. And it just got worse. From June 1940 and all through the first six months of 1941, the SS were keen to kill inmates – beating them to death with batons – as the simplest way to cope with the camp’s overcrowding. Today, the starvation, unimaginable brutality and physical labour that made the concentration camp a living hell are well documented. But the details of Piechowski’s memories still have the power to shock. Inmates were each given a spoon and a tin bowl – not just to eat and drink from, but also to urinate in at night. “If you lost your spoon, you ate from the bowl like a dog,” he says quietly. “If you lost your bowl, that was it; you did not get any soup.”
佩特罗夫斯基回忆道：“起初的三个月里，我们全都沉浸于彻头彻尾的恐惧之中。”但更糟糕的还在后头。从1940年6月一直到1941年6月，党卫军乐此不疲地杀害囚犯——用警棍将他们殴打致死是解决集中营拥挤问题最简单的办法。饥饿、超乎想象的暴虐和体力劳动将集中营变成了人间地狱，所有这些今天都记录在案。 但是佩特罗夫斯基记忆中的细节仍然令人震惊。囚犯们每人发一个勺子和一个锡碗——不仅用来吃饭喝水，还要在夜里当尿盆用。“如果你的勺子丢了，就要像狗一样就着碗吃。”他平静地说，“如果你的碗丢了，那就没有了，你一点汤都喝不到了。”
Sometimes the guards would murder just to get a holiday, he says. “When an SS man was bored, they would take off a prisoner’s cap and throw it away. They would then order the prisoner to fetch it. As the prisoner was running, the officer would shoot them. Then they would claim the prisoner was trying to escape and get three days off for foiling it.”
有时候，卫兵们仅仅为了获得休假而杀人。他说：“当党卫军烦了，他们会取下某个犯人的帽子扔到远处，然后再命令他去捡回来。当犯人跑过去时，他们就朝他开枪，接着声称该犯人企图逃跑被他们阻止，于是为此得到三天的休假。
How did people cope? “Some prayed, but some who had prayed before they arrived would say: ‘There cannot be a God if Auschwitz exists.'”
被关押的人们怎么应付这样的生活？“有些人祈祷，但是那些被关进集中营之前就曾祈祷的人会说：‘只要奥斯维辛存在，就不会有上帝。’”
For six weeks, Piechowski was set to work carrying corpses after executions. “The death wall was between blocks 10 and 11. They would line prisoners up and shoot them in the back of the head.” At the end there would be a pile of naked corpses and Piechowski would take the ankles, while another man held the arms, and throw them on to carts, to transport them to the crematorium. “Sometimes it was 20 a day, sometimes it was a hundred, sometimes it was more. Men, women and children.” He looks at me fiercely. “And children,” he repeats.
有六个星期，佩特罗夫斯基都被分派运送处决后的尸体。“死亡墙位于10号和11号楼之间。他们让将犯人排成队，从背后朝他们头部开枪。” 随后，就会有一堆脱光了衣服的尸体，由佩特罗夫斯基抬着脚踝，另一个人抬着胳膊，扔到手推车上，再送到焚尸炉去。“有时一天20具，有时100具甚至更多，有男人、女人，还有孩子。”他死死地盯着我重复道：“还有孩子。”
奥斯维辛的囚犯佩特罗夫斯基
Yet he did not think of trying to escape until a friend’s name appeared on a death list. Like many of the boy scouts in Auschwitz, Piechowski joined the resistance movement in the camp. As many of the scouts spoke German, they found useful positions – some were even among the prison police and were able to access the prisoners’ files. One day, a Ukrainian friend, Eugeniusz Bendera, a gifted mechanic who worked in the camp’s garage, came to him. “He had been told by those who had access to his documents that he was going to be murdered. I was devastated,” Piechowski says. The germ of an escape plan formed.
不过，直到一位朋友的名字出现在死亡名单上，他才萌生了逃跑的念头。像奥斯维辛的许多男童子军一样，佩特罗夫斯基也参加了集中营里的反抗运动。许多童子军因为会说德语而有了用武之地——有些人甚至成了监狱警察，能接触到犯人档案。一天，一个名叫埃乌盖纽什•本德拉的乌克兰朋友来找佩特罗夫斯基，本德拉是一位富有才华的机械师，在集中营的汽修厂工作。“那些能接触到他档案的人告诉他，德国人要杀他。我彻底绝望了。” 佩特罗夫斯基说。于是，逃跑的计划萌发了。
“He said he could organise a car, but that was not enough.” The men were being held in the main camp, Auschwitz I, where the fences were covered in electrified barbed wire and there were guards every few metres. The escapees would have to make it through the infamous Arbeit macht frei gate (the legend meant “Work sets you free”), and also break out of the outer perimeter of the complex.
“他说他能搞到车，但那还不够。”他们被关在主营区——奥斯维辛一号，那里的栅栏上有带电的倒钩，而且每隔几米就有警卫看守。逃跑者必须穿过那扇恶名远扬的大门，上面写着写着”ARBEIT MACHT FREI”（劳动带来自由），还要穿过集中营的外围警戒。
Yet Piechowski could not dismiss his friend’s plea. “When I thought that they would put Gienek [Bendera] against the wall of death and shoot him, I had to start thinking.” It helped that Piechowski was now working in the store block, where the guards’ uniforms and ammunition were kept. Slowly an idea took shape. But holding him back were the consequences for other prisoners. “In the speech the deputy commandant gave when a new transport came in, he would say: ‘If anyone thinks of doing something stupid like escaping, let them know this: we will kill 10 people for each person who escapes from a work group or [housing] block.’ It was like a cup of cold water hurled over my head.”
然而佩特罗夫斯基无法拒绝朋友的请求。“当我想到他们会让基内克（本德拉）站在死亡墙下，朝他开枪，我就不得不开始想想办法。”有利条件是佩特罗夫斯基现在在仓库区工作，那里存放着卫兵们的军装和弹药。一个想法慢慢成形了，但逃跑将对余下的狱友造成的影响又让他犹豫不决。“新犯人被运来后，副监狱长都要给他们讲话，他说：‘如果有人想做傻事，比如逃跑，那你就记住：只要从一个工作组或监号里逃走一个，我们就会杀10个。’这像是兜头给我泼了一瓢冷水。”
So that the Nazis would not hold their real working group responsible, Piechowski and Bendera formed a fake group of four, recruiting another boy scout, Stanislaw Gustaw Jaster, and priest Józef Lempart for their “spectacular escape”.
为了纳粹分子不至于追究他们小组的责任，佩特罗夫斯基和本德拉成立了一个四人小组，给他们惊心动魄的逃跑做伪装，吸收了一个名叫斯坦尼斯罗•G•贾斯特的男童子军和一个名叫乔瑟夫•莱姆帕特的牧师。
On 20 June 1942 – two years to the day after Bendera entered Auschwitz – the conspirators met in the attic of a half-built block to run through the escape plan for the last time. It was a Saturday, when work stopped at midday and the store rooms and motor pool would be unmanned. Before they left they said a prayer for their families, and agreed that if the attempt failed they would shoot themselves. “What was really encouraging us and pushing us on was that if we did not do this Gienek would be killed. “Until the last moment we weren’t sure. But we said: ‘We have to do this, we have to believe.'”
1942年6月20号，也就是本德拉进入奥斯维辛两年之后，密谋者们在一栋盖了一半的楼的阁楼上会合，最后一次演习逃跑计划。那是个星期六，工作中午就结束了，仓库和停车厂无人看守。出发前，他们为家人祈祷，并约定如果逃跑失败就自杀。“真正鼓舞我们，促使我们行动的原因就是，如果我们不这么干，本德拉就没命了。直到最后一刻我们也没有把握，但我们说：‘我们必须这么干，我们必须有信心。’”
Picking up a rubbish cart containing kitchen waste, the four started walking towards the Arbeit macht frei gate. Here Piechowski told the guard he was part of a squad taking the rubbish away, praying the guard would not check to see if they were registered. Their luck held and they were able to walk freely out of the main camp and towards the store block. How did it feel? “I did not think about anything,” Piechowski says. “I was just trying to pass this final examination. From that moment we did not only need courage, but intelligence.”
四个人推着一辆装着厨房垃圾的手推车，开始朝“劳动带来自由”大门走去。在门口，佩特罗夫斯基告诉卫兵他们小组是去倒垃圾的，心里祈祷卫兵不要检查他们有没有登记过。他们很幸运，畅通无阻地出了主营区，向仓库区走去。当时是什么感觉？“我什么都没想，只想尽力通过最终的考验。” 佩特罗夫斯基说，“从那一刻起，我们需要的就不仅仅是勇气了，还有智慧。”
At the stores, three of them made their way to trap doors covering chutes to the coal cellars. That morning while at work, Piechowski had unscrewed a bolt keeping the doors locked so they could climb in. They made their way to the second-floor store room, broke down the door and dressed themselves in officers’ uniforms. Meanwhile, Bendera got into the garage with a copied key and brought round the car.
到了仓库，他们中的三个人去对付通往煤窖的斜坡上盖着的门。那天早晨干活的时候，佩特罗夫斯基拧掉了一个锁门的螺栓，因此他们可以爬进去。他们到了二楼的储藏室，破门而入，换上了军官的制服。同时本德拉用配的钥匙进了汽修厂，开了辆汽车过来。
The mechanic had picked the Steyr 220 – the fastest car in Auschwitz, there for the sole use of the commandant. “It had to be fast, because he had to be able to get to Berlin in a few hours. We took it because if we were chased we had to be able to get away.”
机械师选了辆斯太尔220，这是奥斯维辛最快的车，专门给指挥官配备的。“车子要快，因为他（指挥官）必须能够在几小时之内到达柏林。我们选它是考虑到万一被追捕，要能逃掉。”
They drove to the main gate – passing SS men who saluted them and shouted Heil Hitler. But for Piechowski, the biggest test was still to come. “There was still one problem: we did not know whether, when we came to the final barrier, we would need a pass. We just planned that I would play the role of an SS officer so well that the guards would believe me.”
他们开到了大门口，一路上党卫军向他们敬礼，并高喊“希特勒万岁”。但是对佩特罗夫斯基来说，最大的考验还在后头。“仍然有一个问题：我们不知道，在最后一道障碍那里，需不需要提供通行证。我们只能计划由我扮演党卫军军官的角色，要演得逼真，好让卫兵相信。”
Yet as they approached the barrier, the guard did not move. As he describes what happens next, Piechowski looks away as though he can see the last obstacle before him. “We are driving towards the final barrier, but it is closed . . . We have 80m to go, it is still closed . . . We have 60m to go and it is still closed. I look at my friend Gienek – he has sweat on his brow and his face is white and nervous. We have 20m to go and it is still closed . . .” Bendera stopped the car and as Piechowski stared blankly ahead, not knowing what to do, he felt a blow on his shoulder. It was Lempart. “He whispered: ‘Kazik, do something.’
但是当他们朝着路障开过去的时候，卫兵却没有动。佩特罗夫斯基在讲述接下来发生的情形时，把目光投向远处，仿佛能看见横在他面前的最后一道障碍。“我们朝最后一道路障开过去，但它是落着的……还剩80米，还是落着……还剩60米，仍然落着。我看看我的朋友基内克——他额头上都是汗，脸色苍白而紧张。我们剩20米就到了，可它依旧落着……”就在佩特罗夫斯基茫然地盯着前方，不知所措时，本德拉停下了车。佩特罗夫斯基感到肩膀被人捶了一下，是莱姆帕特。“他小声说：‘卡兹卡，做点什么。’”
“This was the most dramatic moment. I started shouting.” The SS guards obeyed and the car drove to freedom – allowing the men to become four of only 144 prisoners to successfully escape Auschwitz.
“这是最富戏剧性的一刻，我开始叫骂。”党卫军士兵服从了命令，汽车向着自由驶去。他们四人成了逃出奥斯维辛集中营屈指可数的144人中的一员。
The Nazis were incensed, says Piechowski. “When the commandant heard in Berlin that four prisoners had escaped he asked: ‘How the bloody hell could they escape in my own car, in our own uniforms, and with our ammunition?’ They could not believe that people they did not think had any intelligence took them [for a ride].”
佩特罗夫斯基说，纳粹分子怒不可遏。“当指挥官在柏林听说有四名犯人逃跑了，他问：‘他们怎么他妈的开着我的车、穿着我们的军装、带着我们的武器逃跑的？’他们无法相信，在他们看来没长脑子的人能偷了那些东西跑掉。”
Keeping away from the main roads to evade capture, they drove on forest roads for two hours, heading for the town of Wadowice. There they abandoned the Steyr and continued on foot, sleeping in the forest and taking turns to keep watch. Lempart became ill and was left with a parish priest, while Jaster returned to Warsaw. Piechowski and Bendera spent time in Ukraine before Piechowski returned to Poland, joining the partisan Polish Home Army and spending the rest of the war fighting the Nazis.
他们避开了大路以防被抓，在林间小道上开了两个小时，前往瓦多维采镇。在那里，他们扔下了那辆斯太尔，徒步前行。睡觉就在树林里，并轮流站岗。莱姆帕特生病了，被托付给了一位教区教士，贾斯特回了华沙。佩特罗夫斯基和本德拉在乌克兰呆了一段时间，后来佩特罗夫斯基返回波兰，参加了“波兰救国军”游击队，在接下来的战争中同纳粹进行战斗。
In revenge, Jaster’s parents were arrested and died in Auschwitz, and there were serious consequences for the remaining prisoners. “A month after we escaped, an order went out that every person must be tattooed [with their prison number]. The Nazis knew that an escapee’s hair would grow back, and that the partisans would make new documents for them. But when people saw the number, they would know that they were from Auschwitz. No other camp used numbering – it was our escape that led to it.”
作为报复，贾斯特的父母被捕并死在了奥斯维辛，同时余下的犯人承受了严重的后果。“我们逃走后一个月，下了一道命令，每个犯人都必须纹身（纹上他们的囚号）。纳粹知道逃犯的头发会长出来，游击队会帮他们伪造档案，但看到纹着的囚号，人们就会知道他们来自奥斯维辛——这是我们的逃跑导致的，其他的集中营都不纹号。”
Although they were never recaptured, Piechowski relived his time in the camp in flashbacks and nightmares. And his problems were not over. When Poland became a communist state in 1947, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for joining the Home Army, serving seven. “When I finally came out of prison I was 33 years old. I thought, ‘They have taken away my whole youth – all my young years.'”
尽管他们后来没再被捕，佩特罗夫斯基还是在回忆和噩梦中重历了他的集中营生活。他的麻烦并没有到此结束。当波兰在1947年成了社会主义国家，他因参加“救国军”被判刑10年，并在狱中度过了7年。“当我终于出狱的时候，已经33岁了。我想：‘他们夺去了我的整个青春——我全部的青春时代。’”
Later, he became an engineer and when the communist regime fell in 1989, he took to travelling the world with his wife, Iga. He has written two books about his experiences, and tries to ensure no one will forget what happened in Auschwitz. Does he mind reliving his terrifying past? “I am a scout so I have to do my duty – and be cheerful and merry. And I will be a scout to the end of my life,” he says simply.
后来他成了一名工程师。1989年社会主义政权倒台后，他同妻子伊佳开始周游世界。关于自己的经历，他写了两本书，试图确保每一个人都不会忘记奥斯维辛曾经发生过什么。他介不介意再回忆起恐怖的过去？“我是一名童子军，因此必须履行自己的职责——保持快乐。直到生命结束，我都将是一名童子军。”他的回答很简单。
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