37 Facts About Witold Pilecki

In 1940, Witold Pilecki volunteered to allow himself to be captured by the occupying Germans in order to infiltrate the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Witold Pilecki was born on 13 May 1901 in the town of Olonets, Karelia, in the Russian Empire.

Witold Pilecki was a descendant of a Polish-speaking noble family of the Leliwa coat of arms.

In 1910, Witold Pilecki moved with his mother and siblings to Vilnius, to attend a Polish school there, while his father remained in Olonets.

In Vilnius, Witold Pilecki attended a local school and joined the underground Polish Scouting and Guiding Association.

Witold Pilecki fought in the Kiev offensive and as part of a cavalry unit defending the then-Polish city of Grodno.

On 5 August 1920, Witold Pilecki joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and then in the Rudninkai Forest.

Shortly afterward, Witold Pilecki was transferred to the army reserves, completing courses required for a non-commissioned officer rank at the Cavalry Reserve Officers' Training School in Grudziadz.

Witold Pilecki went on to complete his secondary education later that same year.

Witold Pilecki briefly enrolled with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Stefan Batory University but was forced to abandon his studies in 1924 due to both financial issues and the declining health of his father.

In July 1925, Witold Pilecki was assigned to the 26th Lancer Regiment with the rank of Chorazy.

Witold Pilecki would be promoted to podporucznik the following year.

Also in September 1926, Witold Pilecki became the owner of his family's ancestral estate, Sukurcze, in the Lida District of the Nowogrodek Voivodeship.

Witold Pilecki organized the Krakus Military Horsemen Training program in 1932 and was appointed to command the 1st Lida Military Training Squadron, which in 1937 was placed under the Polish 19th Infantry Division.

In 1938, Witold Pilecki received the Silver Cross of Merit for his activities.

Witold Pilecki was assigned to the 19th Infantry Division under Major General Jozef Kwaciszewski, part of the Army Prusy and his unit took part in heavy fighting against the advancing Germans during the invasion of Poland.

Witold Pilecki was one of 2,000 men arrested on 19 September 1940.

Witold Pilecki used the identity documents of Tomasz Serafinski, who had been mistakenly assumed to be dead.

Two backstories exist purporting to explain how Witold Pilecki actually found himself in Auschwitz.

The information provided by Witold Pilecki was a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies.

Witold Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp, or that the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside.

At one point during the journey, German soldiers attempted to stop Witold Pilecki, firing at him as he fled; several bullets passed through his clothing, while one wounded him without hitting either bones or vital organs.

In June 1943, in Nowy Wisnicz, Witold Pilecki drafted a report on the situation in Auschwitz.

Shortly after rejoining the resistance, Witold Pilecki became a member of the Kedyw sabotage unit, using the pseudonym Roman Jezierski.

Until becoming involved in the Warsaw Uprising, Witold Pilecki continued coordinating ZOW and Home Army activities and providing ZOW with what limited support he could.

Witold Pilecki gave Barbara Newerly money from the Polish resistance, which she passed on to several Jewish families whom she and her husband protected.

Witold Pilecki gave her money to pay off her own szmalcownik, or blackmailer, who said he was Jewish and threatened to report her to the Gestapo.

The blackmailer disappeared, with Jack Fairweather concluding that "it is likely that Witold Pilecki arranged for his execution".

Witold Pilecki was sent to Oflag VII-A, a prison-of-war camp for Polish officers located north of Murnau, Bavaria, where he remained until the prisoners were liberated on 29 April 1945.

Witold Pilecki worked as a jewelry salesman, a bottle label painter, and as the night manager of a construction warehouse.

Anders ordered him to leave Poland, but Witold Pilecki was reluctant to comply because he had a family in the country and his wife was unwilling to emigrate with their children, as well as due to a lack of a suitable replacement.

Witold Pilecki was charged with illegal border crossings, use of forged documents, failure to enlist in the military, the carrying of illegal firearms, espionage for Anders, espionage for "foreign imperialism", and assassination plots against several officials of the Ministry of Public Security.

Witold Pilecki denied the assassination charges, as well as espionage, although he admitted to passing information to the II Corps, of which he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws.

Cyrankiewicz, who had already testified at the trial, instead wrote that Witold Pilecki must be treated harshly as an "enemy of the state".

Subsequently, on 25 May 1948, Witold Pilecki was executed by Piotr Smietanski with a shot to the back of the head at the Mokotow Prison in Warsaw.

Several of Witold Pilecki's affiliates were arrested and tried around the same time, with at least three executed as well; a number of others received death sentences that commuted to prison sentences.

The film shows Witold Pilecki performing deeds impossible for an ordinary man, while keeping faith with his country even under the direst torture.