English source-aligned edition
Paul Szczurek
Paul Szczurek served as guard and Blockführer at Auschwitz who took part in selections and killings. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Auschwitz through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Paul Szczurek was born in Königshütte on 26 June 1908 and died in Kraków on 24 January 1948. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- From 1940 to 1945 he served at Auschwitz as a guard and Blockführer; the court found that he actively participated in the SS group handling selections and gassing and drove victims into the gas chambers. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- The Supreme National Tribunal also found that he brutalized and killed prisoners, including shooting 8 Jewish women; it sentenced him to death on 22 December 1947. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Place in the chain of responsibility
The profile attributes specific acts established by the judgment to Szczurek: selections, driving victims into the gas chambers, abuse and individual killings. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Key events and mechanisms
- From 1940 to 1945 he served in the Auschwitz main camp and its subcamps, including as a Blockführer. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- In April 1943 he shot 8 Jewish women; the judgment also recorded his participation in selections and violence against other prisoners. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
The Supreme National Tribunal sentenced him to death on 22 December 1947; the sentence was carried out in Kraków on 24 January 1948. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Limits of the evidence
The profile does not derive a total victim count for Szczurek beyond the specific acts described in the judgment and does not equate his participation in the SS group handling selections and gassing with command of the entire extermination mechanism. No portrait with clearly documented publication rights was found. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.