Jan Baraś-Komski - Portrait with Sunflower (Portret ze słonecznikiem), oil on wood, 1937
Jan Baraś-Komski is probably best known for his Auschwitz paintings and drawings. Born on February 3, 1915 in a small Polish town of Bircza, he entered the prestigious Polish Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow - the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych Jana Matejki w Krakowie, in 1934, where he studied painting and art history until 1939.
Like many young Poles in the early months of the war, Jan Komski, a Polish Roman Catholic, joined the resistance movement. In 1940 he was arrested while trying to cross the southern border under the assumed name of Jan Baraś in order to join the newly formed Polish
Army in France.
He was first taken to the prison in the town of Tarnów only to be deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, arriving there in the very first transport, together with 727 other Polish
men, on June 14, 1940. He was issued the prisoner number 564. The early numbers were not yet tattooed on prisoners' arms. He wore a red triangle on his camp uniform which identified him as a political prisoner.
Jan Baraś-Komski - Arrival
In the camp, Komski became part of the clandestine resistance movement created by Witold Pilecki. On December 29, 1942, he and three of his comrades, Mieczyslaw Januszewski, Boleslaw
Kuczbara, and a German, the Auschwitz inmate N°2 and Kapo Otto Küsel, participated in one of the most famous escapes
in the history of Auschwitz. A cart drawn by two horses passed the camp's gate in
the afternoon. It carried Kuczbara, dressed in a stolen SS uniform holding forged papers. Three inmates that appeared to be escorted by the SS-man walked alongside. The escapees made it to the village of Broszkowice where they were hidden and given civilian clothes.
Komski made it safely to the city of Kraków (Cracow), in what was then known as the General Government, (Gubernia Generalna), or the Generalgouvernement under the German governor Reichsminister Hans Frank.
Jan Baraś-Komski - Eating and Starvation
In January 1943 Komski was arrested in a routine roundup (łapanka) near
the railway station in Cracow and held there in the Montelupi prison, after a failed escape and a brutal beating, till the end of
September. On October 1, 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz for the
second time. Not identified as a former escapee, with the help of the camp's underground movement, he was registered under the name of Józef Nosek and assigned prisoner number 152884. He was sent to the camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau where the guards did not know him, and transferred later that month to the concentration camp at Buchenwald in Germany proper.
We were like soldiers exposed every minute to a danger of dying, but we couldn't help ourselves, because we have nothing for our defense except the will to survive. But will not always was enough, because very often, in most cases, the prisoner died. - Jan Komski in an interview on January 30, 1992
Komski was moved a few times between different concentration camps and eventually ended up in Dachau where he was liberated by the units of General Patton's army on April 29, 1945. He survived because of his special talent as an artist.
After his liberation he lived in Displaced Persons camps in Bavaria where he met and married "Jean" who was also an Auschwitz survivor. They both emigrated to the United States with their son in 1949 where they became citizens. 
Jan Baraś-Komski at work in Virginia
In the United States Komski assumed a career as an illustrator for the Washington Post. He retired in 1984 but continued to draw and paint.
After seeing Francisco de Goya's "Disasters of War" at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain in mid-1970s, Komski decided to paint the horrific scenes of life and death in the concentration camp as he remembered them.
To contrast the horrors of his past, at the same time he created a vast body of colorful work that depicted the beauty and serenity of Northern Virginia.
Jan Baraś-Komski - Barge on Canal
He painted every day, even at the tender age of 86. Those who knew him reported that he loved life and was very alert, courteous and caring.
Towards the end of his life, Komski visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau for the last time. He went there twice before. Most of his camp art is there on display in the museum.
On July 20, 2002 he lost his battle with cancer and passed away at the age 0f 87 in Arlington, Virginia.
By Dominique Allmon
Jan Baraś-Komski - African Violet
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