1/Witold Pilecki's grandfather, Jozef, was involved in the January Uprising of 1863/84 against Russian rule and was exiled to Siberia for seven years. Witold was born in Karelia in 1901. As a child and teenager, he also lived in Vilna and Central
2/Russia (Oryol). From 1918, he fought for Polish independence, including in the Soviet-Polish War of 1918-1920. He was demobilized in 1926, worked on the family farm, and had two children with his wife. With the outbreak of the war against Poland in 1939,
3/A breathtaking biography that should be included in every European history textbook! Initially fighting on the German-Polish front, his unit was disbanded as a result of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland on September 17, 1939. Pilecki went to Warsaw, where he
4/In early November 1939, he founded one of the first Polish underground organizations against the occupying power, which by 1940 comprised about 8,000 fighters and was then integrated into the largest underground army, the Armia Krajowa (Home Army). In September 1940, he deliberately
5/Arrested in Warsaw during a raid to be taken to Auschwitz concentration camp. He arrived there, marked by torture, and organized an underground resistance organization. His plan was to inform the public about the conditions. From October 1940, the organization was able to
6/sation smuggled reports on the internal conditions from the camp to Warsaw, from where they were passed on to the government-in-exile in London. Pilecki's plan to use these revelations to gain more support for the Polish freedom struggle failed: The reports
7/was mistrusted, and in London there were no plans to strengthen the Home Army with Allied support and to tackle the liberation of Poland. In April 1943, Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz—the Gestapo was on his trail, and he wanted to stop reporting on Auschwitz.
8/intensify. After his illegal arrival in Warsaw, Pilecki learned how little he and his reports were believed in London. Consequently, Witold Pilecki actively participated in the Warsaw Uprising, which broke out on 1 August 1944. In early October 1944, he surrendered
9/himself. He was placed in German internment camps. He was liberated by US troops at the end of April 1945. Witold Pilecki returned to Poland and built a secret intelligence network there. He continued his fight for a free Poland—now against the Soviet occupation.
10/power. In the spring of 1946, the London government in exile ordered the fighting to cease because of its hopelessness. The underground fighters were to either flee to the West or, if possible, return to their old bourgeois lives. Pilecki resisted. He began
11/To collect and document evidence of the crimes committed by the Soviet occupying forces against Polish society. On May 8, 1947, the Polish secret service, an arm of the Soviet occupiers, arrested him. Severely tortured, Pilecki did not betray any of his fellow fighters. In March
In December 1948, a show trial began against him, which ended with the death penalty against Witold Pilecki and other co-defendants. He was executed on May 15, 1948. His remains have never been found. It is assumed that he was buried in a garbage dump next to a cemetery.
13/was buried in Warsaw. Until the fall of the communist regime, Pilecki's fate was kept secret like a state secret. His full rehabilitation only took place on October 1, 1990. In 2013, Pilecki's legendary
14/Secret report from and about Auschwitz. Finally, beyond Poland and small circles of experts, British journalist Jack Fairwather made the Polish hero Witold Pilecki known when he published a comprehensive, highly exciting, and breathtaking biography in 2019.
15/which was also published in German in 2022. And now the Pilecki Institute, a research institution with a political education mission, which has existed in Warsaw since 2017 and has had a branch in Berlin since 2019, has a highly informative and vivid permanent exhibition
16/on the life and work of Witold Pilecki. This catalogue, which is a brilliant biography based on Fairwather's account and is rich in documents and photos, was published to accompany it. This exhibition was also intended as a traveling exhibition
17/travel through Europe. The impressive catalogue should be offered as a reference in all European languages. No one who has read this biography will ever again be spared the consequences of totalitarianism, lack of freedom, fascism and
17/Communism. Witold Pilecki belongs—I repeat emphatically—in every European history textbook. And this catalog in every library—private or public! @PileckiInstitut
