Who was Witold Pilecki?

WITOLD PILECKI
CAVALRY CAPTAIN
(1901 - 1948)

Boy Scout, community leader, landowner and artist.
Officer of the Polish Army and a conspirator. Loyal fighter for an independent Poland.

After the outbreak of WWII, he took up the fight for his homeland. In November 1939 he co-founded the Secret Polish Army.

Between 1940 and 1943 he volunteered to become a prisoner of KL Auschwitz, where he established an underground organization and reported on the atrocities of the ruthless German oppressors. Having completed his mission in Auschwitz, he escaped and continued to fight.

He fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and became a prisoner of German POW camps in Lamsdorf and Murnau.

Following his liberation, he joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

He returned to Soviet-enslaved Poland and continued his resistance work. Arrested by the communists,
he was subjected to brutal interrogations. After a show trial, he was sentenced to death and murdered on 25 May 1948. The burial place of Witold Pilecki has never been revealed.

He lived according to his life motto:

Love your homeland. Love your sacred faith, love the traditions of your nation. Grow up to be honourable, always faithful to the highest values you hold and which you must foster forever in your life.