Blue and white armband with a red triangle marked P worn by a Polish Catholic political prisoner

Blue and white armband with a red triangle and the letter P owned by Henryk Zguda, a survivor of several concentration camps from 1942-1945. The armband was made postwar to commemorate his experiences. It has his prisoner numbers from Auschwitz and Buchenwald and the blue and white stripes are reminders of the concentration camp uniforms. Henryk, a 25 year old Catholic, was arrested in occupied Krakow by the German SS on May 30, 1942. On June 15, Henryk was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. He was identified as a political prisoner by a red triangle patch on his uniform. Henryk was transferred to Buchenwald on March 12, 1943, where he worked in the stone quarry. In spring 1945, Buchenwald was evacuated and, on April 10, Henryk was forced on a death march to Dachau. He was liberated by American troops on April 29. Henryk was hospitalized and then sent to Neu Freimann displaced persons camp. He returned to Krakow in 1946.