Witold's report
Encyclopedia
Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
, Polish army soldier and the secret agent of Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
in Auschwitz concentration camp.
Background of Pilecki report
On November 9, 1939, after defeat of the Polish army in the Invasion of Poland, cavalryman Witold PileckiWitold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
with his commander Major Jan Włodarkiewicz founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland. In 1940, Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. Until then, little had been known about the Germans' running of the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński". On September 19, 1940, he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka), and was caught by the Germans along with some 2,000 innocent civilians. After two days of torture in Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
barracks, he was sent to Auschwitz and got the number 4859.
In Auschwitz
Inside the camp Pilecki organized an underground Union of Military Organizations (Związek Organizacji WojskowejZwiazek Organizacji Wojskowej
Związek Organizacji Wojskowej was an underground resistance organization formed by Witold Pilecki at Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940.-Beginning:...
, ZOW) connected with other smaller underground organizations.
Pilecki planned a general uprising in Auschwitz and hoped that the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp (most likely the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade
Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade
The 1st Independent Parachute Brigade was a parachute brigade under command of Maj.Gen. Stanisław Sosabowski, created in Scotland in September 1941, with the exclusive mission to drop into occupied Poland in order to help liberate the country. The British government, however, pressured the Polish...
, based in Britain), and that the Home Army would organize an assault on the camp from outside. In 1943 Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, with the hope of personally convincing Home Army
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
leaders about his idea of uprising in Auschwitz. On the night of April 26/27, 1943, made a daring escape from the camp but his plan was not accepted by the Home Army as the Allies considered his reports about the Holocaust exaggerated.
Report
ZOW's via intelligence network in camp and started to send regular reports to Home Army from October 1940. From November 1940 through ZOW, the resistance network organized in Auschwitz, was sent first information about the genocide to Home Army Headquarters in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. From March 1941 Witold Pilecki's reports were forwarded to the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
and through it, to the British government in London and other Allied governments. These reports informed the Allies about the Holocaust and were the principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz-Birkenau for the Western Allies.
On June 20, 1942, Ukrainian Eugeniusz Bendera and three Poles, Kazimierz Piechowski
Kazimierz Piechowski
Kazimierz Piechowski is a retired engineer, a Boy Scout during the Second Polish Republic, a political prisoner of the Nazis at Auschwitz concentration camp, a soldier in the Polish Home Army then a prisoner for seven years of the communist government of Poland...
, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape from Auschwitz camp. Dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände
3rd SS Division Totenkopf
The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke...
, fully armed and in an SS staff car they drove out the main gate in a stolen automobile, a Steyr
Steyr automobile
Steyr was an Austrian automotive company from 1915 until 1990.Formed as a branch of Steyr Osterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft in 1915, to diversify manufacturing, the founders hired 38-year-old designer Hans Ledwinka after he resigned from Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau...
220 belonging to Rudolf Hoss. Jaster member of ZOW carried with him detailed report about conditions in the camp, written by Pilecki. The Germans never recaptured any of them.
After a daring escape from Auschwitz on April 27, 1943, Pilecki wrote "Raport W". Report was signed by other members of Polish underground cooperating with ZOW: Aleksander Wielopolski, Stefan Bielecki, Antoni Woźniak, Aleksander Paliński, Ferdynand Trojnicki, Eleonora Ostrowska and Stefan Miłkowski. Part of this report were also personal list of ZOW members - "Teren S". Last, over 100 pages report Pilecki prepared in 1945 after release from German prisoner-of-war camp at Murnau
Murnau am Staffelsee
Murnau am Staffelsee is a market town in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region of Bavaria, Germany.Murnau is situated on the edge of the Bavarian alps, approx. 70 km south of Munich. Directly to its west is the Staffelsee lake.-History:Murnau was first documented in...
. The first publication of Pilecki reports took place in 2000 – 55 years after war.
Further reading
- Adam Cyra, Ochotnik do Auschwitz. Witold Pilecki 1901-1948, ISBN 83-912000-3-5, Chrześcijańskie Stowarzyszenie Rodzin Oświęcimskich, Oświęcim 2000
- Cyra, Adam Spadochroniarz Urban [Paratrooper Urban], Oświęcim 2005.
- Cyra, Adam and Wiesław Jan Wysocki, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki, Oficyna Wydawnicza VOLUMEN, 1997. ISBN 8386857277
- Jacek Pawłowicz, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki 1901-1948, 2008, ISBN 978-83-60464-97-7.
- Foot, Michael Richard Daniell (2003), Six Faces of Courage. Secret agents against Nazi tyranny. Witold Pilecki, Leo Cooper, ISBN 0413394301
- Lewis, Jon E. (1999), The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 0786706295
- Piekarski, Konstanty R. (1990), Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Dundurn Press Ltd., ISBN 1550020714
- Tchorek, Kamil (March 12, 2009), Double life of Witold Pilecki, the Auschwitz volunteer who uncovered Holocaust secrets, London: The Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5891132.ece, retrieved March 16, 2009
- Wyman, David S.; Garlinski, Jozef (December 1976), "Review: Jozef Garlinski. Fighting Auschwitz: The Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp", American Historical Review (American Historical Association) 81 (5): 1168–1169, doi:10.2307/1853043, ISSN 00028762
- Ciesielski E., Wspomnienia Oświęcimskie [Auschwitz Memoirs], Kraków, 1968
- Garlinski, JozefJózef GarlinskiJózef Garliński was a Polish historian and prose writer. He wrote many notable books on the history of World War II, some of which were translated into English...
, Fighting Auschwitz: the Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp, Fawcett, 1975, ISBN 0449225992, reprinted by Time Life Education, 1993. ISBN 0809489252 (see also review in The Times) - Gawron, W. Ochotnik do Oświęcimia [Volunteer for Auschwitz], Calvarianum, Auschwitz Museum, 1992
- Patricelli, M. "Il volontario" [The Volunteer], Laterza 2010, ISBN 88-420-9188-X.
- Wysocki, Wiesław Jan. Rotmistrz Pilecki, Pomost, 1994. ISBN 8385209425
- Kon Piekarski "Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald", Dundurn Press Ltd., 1989, ISBN 1550020714, ISBN 9781550020717
External links
- Witold`s report online in english
- Staff correspondent (March 5, 1948), Polish Left-Wing Relations: No Fusion as Yet, London: The Times, pp. 3, retrieved March 12, 2009 Witold Pilecki Video Witold Pilecki's report in English The Murder of Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki's report from Auschwitz (rtf) / mirror (HTML) Additional reports of Pilecki Andrzej M. Kobos, Witold Pilecki w Piekle XX Wieku, Zwoje 5 (9), 1998
- Biography of Witold Pilecki on Diapozytyw
- Józef Garlinski, The Polish Underground Movement and Auschwitz Concentration Camp, 2003
- Episodes from Auschwitz: Witolds Report. Witold Pilecki's time at Auschwitz and post-War fate presented as a graphic history.
- Meet The Man Who Sneaked Into Auschwitz.