Witold Zacharewicz photographed as prisoner No. 76174 at Auschwitz
In 1938 Witold Zacharewicz got an offer to sign a deal with the Hollywood studio United Artists. He was fluent in several languages, including English, French and German. Zacharewicz was starring in what became his last film, Gehenna. He tried to defer his military service in order to go to Hollywood, but on September 1, 1938, Zacharewicz enlisted in the Polish Army.[1]
On October 1, 1942, Zacharewicz was arrested by the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, for aiding Jews. With ten other people, including his mother, he had been involved in the production of false documents for Jews hiding in Warsaw. In November 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered on February 16, 1943. There are two accounts of his death: two eyewitnesses stated that he was murdered with an injection of phenol to the heart, but other former inmates have claimed that he was executed.[2]
