Janusz Kahl, a former prisoner of the Neuengamme concentration camp from Poland and the vice president of the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme died today at the age of 89. We are mourning the death of a warmhearted and wise friend.

Janusz Kahl, a former prisoner of the Neuengamme concentration camp from Poland and the vice president of the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme died today at the age of 89. We are mourning the death of a warmhearted and wise friend.

At the age of 17, Janusz Kahl was deported to Germany during the Warsaw uprising in 1944. He was first sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and on August 24, 1944 transferred to Alt Garge, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. Here, he was one of 500 men from Warsaw who were forced to perform very hard physical work for the Hamburgische Elektrizitätswerke, a former electrical company in Hamburg, where they had to build a coal-fired power station. On March 23, 1945 he was transferred to Wöbellin, a so-called reception camp, where he was liberated by American soldiers on May 2, 1945.

After the war, he studied music, composed musical pieces and worked at the Warsaw Operetta for 40 years. After he retired, he dedicated himself to doing research on the Polish prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp. He was active in the Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners and the vice president of the International Committee of Former Prisoners, Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme. At the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, he regularly gave public testimonies during which he talked to young people. He planned on coming to Hamburg again next week.

The Memorial lost a relentless fighter against oblivion. Our thoughts are with his Family.