| Aleksander Kulisiewicz | |
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1918 |
| Birth Place: | Kraków, Austria-Hungary |
| Death Place: | Kraków, Polish People's Republic |
| Resting Place: | Salwator Cemetery, Kraków |
| Occupation: | Journalist, singer |
| Years Active: | 1939–1981 |
| Known For: | Collection of music composed in Nazi concentration camps |
| Awards: | Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (1965) |
Aleksander Kulisiewicz (7 August 1918 – 12 March 1982) was a Polish singer, journalist and a political prisoner during the World War II occupation of Poland.[1] [2]
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.[3] In the camp, he sang and learned songs passed on to him by other inmates,[4] especially from fellow prisoner Martin Rosenberg (known as Rosebery d'Arguto), including his Tsen Brider-inspired "Jüdische Todessang" (Jewish Death Song), which d'Arguto had composed in 1942.[5]
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.[6] Due to his extensive interpretations of camp songs, he was nicknamed the Singer from Hell.[7]
Kulisiewicz died on 12 March 1982 in Kraków.[8] He is buried at Salwator Cemetery.