During his time at Auschwitz, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski boxed for the guards' entertainment, earning extra food and privileges which he shared with his fellow prisoners.

One of the first prisoners taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Nazis was a 23-year-old Polish man by the name of Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski. Dubbed “Prisoner 77,” Pietrzykowski faced terrible odds at Auschwitz, where more than a million people would perish between 1940 and 1945. But Pietrzykowski managed to survive, largely by winning dozens of boxing matches.

The bantamweight vice-champion of Poland and a champion of Warsaw, Pietrzykowski soon realized that boxing could win him extra food and privileges — provided that he won his bouts. During his time at Auschwitz, Pietrzykowski engaged in between

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