WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Stanislaw Ryniak, the first person imprisoned at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, died, the Auschwitz Museum said Wednesday. He was 88. No exact date of death was given.
Ryniak was arrested by the Nazis in his hometown of Sanok, in southern Poland, in May 1940 and accused of being a member of the Polish resistance. He was 24 at the time.
He arrived at Auschwitz on June 14, 1940, together with hundreds of other Polish political prisoners on that first train of inmates.
Numbers were tattooed on the 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, making him essentially the first inmate.
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