- Kazimierz Smolen was born on April 19, 1920 in Chorzów, Slaskie, Poland. He is known for Pomni imya svoye (1974), And the Violins Stopped Playing (1988) and Kornblumenblau (1989). He died on January 27, 2012 in Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland.
- Passed away on the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was imprisoned during World War II. After his liberation he became the director of the memorial site that was opened by the Polish government.
- He was involved in the anti-Nazi Resistance in Poland during World War II. He was arrested by the Germans in April 1941 and taken to Auschwitz in one of the early mass shipments of prisoners there. He left the camp on the last transport of prisoner evacuated by the Germans on January 18,1945, nine days before its liberation. He attributed his survival to good health and extreme luck.
- He was director of the Auschwitz Museum from 1955 to 1990. He remained his Oswiecim, Poland after his retirement.
- [on surviving Auschwitz] Sometimes when I think about it. I feel it may be some kind of sacrifice, some kind of obligation I have for having survived.
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