Heroes you should know: Witold Pilecki

“During the first 3 years at Auschwitz, 2 million people died; over the next 2 years - 3 million.”         -Witold Pilecki


Witold Pilecki (May 13, 1901 – May 25, 1948) was a captain in the Polish Army, founded the Secret Polish Army resistance group, volunteered to enter a concentration camp, and died a martyr for freedom.

Before he’d even graduated from high school Pilecki had fought in World War 1 and in the Polish-Soviet War. After graduating from high school, he studied at Stefan Batory University and also took officer’s training courses. In 1938, he received the Silver Cross of Merit for his social work in the local community.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Pilecki fought in several of the bloodiest battles, and when his unit was disbanded he co-founded one of Poland’s earliest underground resistance groups. In 1940, when questions began to arise about the goings-on at a prison camp in Oświęcim (known in English as Auschwitz), Pilecki volunteered to intentionally get captured and sent there.

Carrying false identification papers, he entered the concentration camp as a prisoner in 1941. There, he formed a secret resistance group, ZOW, dedicated to caring for the physical needs of the prisoners, but also to gathering intelligence about the Nazi activities in the camp, including number of arrivals and death statistics.

For close to a year, in an effort to raise awareness of the evil of Auschwitz, the group even broadcasted reports from inside the camp, by building a radio transmitter with smuggled parts.

For three years, ZOW supplied intelligence for the Polish Resistance and the Allied Forces, which Pilecki had hoped would lead to troops liberating the concentration camp. Unfortunately, the Polish Resistance lacked the soldiers to pull off an attack, and British Intelligence considered his findings to be grossly exaggerated. Thus, no plan of liberation materialized and the killing continued for two more years in Auschwitz.

In 1943, Pilecki and a group of men escaped with documents stolen from Nazi commanders there. He immediately returned to battle but was captured again by the Nazis during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and spent the remainder of the war a POW.

From 1945 until 1947, Captain Pilecki continued to work in Intelligence, now gathering information about Soviet atrocities against Poles. Even though he was told by the Polish government-in-exile that his cover had been blown, he did not leave his country. He was captured by the Communists on May 8, 1947, charged with espionage, and executed on May 25, 1948.

After the fall of Communism, Witold Pilecki’s story finally came to light. In 2006 he received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor.

“To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell for a Heavenly cause ...”

Witold Pilecki lived what others sing about.


He is a hero you should know.




To learn more about this hero, you might consider:
Six Faces of Courage. Secret agents against Nazi tyranny, Michael Richard Daniell Foot
The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, Jon E. Lewis
Tchorek, Kamil (12 March 2009), "Double life of Witold Pilecki, the Auschwitz volunteer who uncovered Holocaust secrets", The Times (London)