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Overview
This aluminium cigarette lighter was made by Wladyslaw Petrowski, a prisoner at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, in 1943-44. Petrowski made it for his friend and fellow prisoner Edward Mroczek, using materials stolen from the factory in which they were both forced to work. Edward's initials and camp registration number (2750) are engraved on either side. He brought it with him when he immigrated to New Zealand in 1954, and donated it to Te Papa in 1996.
Flossenbürg Concentration Camp
When World War Two broke out, Edward Mroczek joined the Polish Resistance: an underground anti-fascist resistance movement. At just fifteen years old he was captured by the German Gestapo, sent to Auschwitz, and later transferred to Flossenbürg.
As the end of the war drew near, the Gestapo evacuated Flossenbürg and marched the prisoners towards another camp. After three days of marching they were liberated by American soldiers. Tragically, the rescue came too late for Wladyslaw, who died in 1944.
A New Life in New Zealand
Fearing for his freedom under communist rule, Edward did not return to Poland, but instead joined the British Merchant Navy. He travelled all over the world, and one voyage took him to Wellington. There he met Irena Niedzwiecka, a young Polish woman who had arrived in New Zealand in 1944 as a child refugee. The two wed in 1954, and they were married for more than sixty years. Edward died in 2015.