Quick Facts
Biography
Stanisław Ryniak (November 21, 1915 – February 2004) was a Polish political prisoner of Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. He was the first Polish prisoner in Auschwitz (that is, the one with the lowest number - 31).
He is buried in Wroclaw, Poland.
In May 1940, when he was 24, Ryniak was arrested by the Germans in his hometown of Sanok and was accused of being a member of the Polish resistance. He was transported to Tarnów prison on 7 May, together with 18 Poles from Jarosław, and arrived at Auschwitz on 14 June 1940, in the first mass transport of prisoners to the camp.
Numbers were tattooed on prisoners' arms in the order of their arrival. The first 30 numbers were given to German criminal prisoners who would serve as camp guards. Ryniak's number was 31.
In 1944 he was sent to the Leitmeritz work camp, in what is now the Czech Republic, where he was subjected to hard labour until the end of the war. On his release, he weighed 88 pounds. "I have no idea how I survived it all," Ryniak told the Polish news agency P.A.P. in a 1995 interview. "Where did I get the strength?"