Auschwitz survivor celebrates 100th birthday

Leszek Kopec celebrated his 100th birthday on 6 June

A man who remembers being sent to numerous concentration camps during World War Two has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Leszek Kopec told BBC Radio Derby he served as a Polish Scout at the start of the war before being captured by Nazi soldiers and sent to different concentration camps throughout the conflict.

Mr Kopec, who turned 100 on Thursday, fled to England in 1949 and has called Derby his home ever since.

His son, Jarek, said: "I think it's quite incredible given what he has been through."

Mr Kopec, who worked at the Celanese production facility in Spondon, celebrated his landmark birthday with friends and family at the Polish Catholic Church in Derby.

Jarek Kopec at his father's 100th birthday party

Mr Kopec told the BBC in addition to Auschwitz he was held at six other concentration camps during the war, including Dachau, Gross-Rosen and Hersbruck.

"It was a very hard life in the camps," he said.

"Especially in the beginning, when you had been arrested because there was so many different people from so many places.

"Many of my friends were hanged or shot. I was in Auschwitz when 19 people I was friends with died."

Mr Kopec said he weighed 5st 5lb when the US Army liberated the camp he was staying at.

He said: "I was actually unconscious when America liberated the camp because I was sent to hospital, I only weighed 36kg.

"After so many years and so many camps it was difficult, not many polish people live to 100 years."

'Proud'

Reflecting on his father's long life, Jarek Kopec said his father had never really told his family what had happened to him during the war.

"I think it's quite incredible given what he has been through. I’m sure he will continue for a few years longer", he told the BBC.

"We never really knew about his stories. It’s only fairly recently that it's been relayed to us.

"On various journeys and holidays in Poland we visited various places where he had been kept. Bit-by-bit we started to piece things together."

Asked if it was hard to hear what happened to his father, he said: "It's very difficult being brought up with people who were in the war.

"You have to be proud of what they’ve been through and what they have created after that."

Follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.