Aleksander Kulisiewicz

Aleksander Tytus Kulisiewicz was a Polish singer, journalist and a political prisoner during the World War II occupation of Poland.

Early life

Kulisiewicz was born on 7 August 1918 in Kraków. He studied law in German-occupied Poland and worked as a journalist. In 1940, in reaction to his article "Heil butter! – Enough of Adolf Hitler!" he was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In the camp, he sang and learned songs passed on to him by other inmates, especially from fellow prisoner Martin Rosenberg, including his Tsen Brider-inspired "Jüdische Todessang", which d'Arguto had composed in 1942.

Post War

Following liberation and the end of World War II, he began to document the songs he had learned from other inmates. He dictated hundreds of songs in four languages to a nurse in Kraków. Due to his extensive interpretations of camp songs, he was nicknamed the Singer from Hell.
Kulisiewicz died on 12 March 1982 in Kraków. He is buried at Salwator Cemetery.