Hello! First, sorry for long time of silence. I had a lot of job et cetera. I would like to show you polish hero of WWII rotmistrz (it is captain in polish cavalry) Witold Pilecki. During World War II, he became the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, he organized the resistance movement in the camp, and as early as 1940, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped from the camp in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising. He remained loyal to the Polish government in exile and was eventually executed in 1948 by the communist secret police Urząd Bezpieczeństwa. Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime. Witold Pilecki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rotamaster Pilecki This men was completely unknown before 1989 in polish history, because soviet regime tried to destroy the memory about him. Fortunatelly now, Pilecki is a hero, which is a example of polish patriotism. In polish cities are streets with his name, there is a theatre art about him. So he has a place, which he should have after 1945. 50 years too late... I'm not sure, but I think that this person is not good known in the West. So I try to show him to us.
I see he is mentioned in this article in The Times. Double life of Witold Pilecki, the Auschwitz volunteer who uncovered Holocaust secrets - Times Online I just can't get my head around this bit. After voluntarily being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp for 2½ years This is ironic... He was, however, caught by the Polish Communist regime. In a twist of fate, a Polish Jew administered the torture during his interrogation
I think that he should be belated hero not only in Poland, because his courage show the world what Gemans did in Auschwitz with Jews, Polish, Russiand etc. His reports for Armia Krajowa and polish goverment in London about situation in Auschwitz was very important. It's different story, that people couldn't believe in this what Germans did, especially western goverments...
Very good article here. Including photos of him. http://www.doomedsoldiers.com/volunteer-to-Auschwitz.html
A book has been published recently published:- The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery Translated from Pilecki's original 1945 Polish report into English The Auschwitz Volunteer: Witold Pilecki - About the Book
I just collected a copy of "The Volunteer" by Jack Fairweather from the library. Despite reading quite a bit about the horrors of WW2, I still find the first 50 pages of this book quite shocking; the way the invaders treated the Polish, and the way some Poles treated each other was just dreadful. Its difficult to imagine that society, and what we take to be reasonable civilised conduct, can breakdown so quickly and so completely. Witold was (and is) an inspirational character, and I'm looking forward to reading the next 350 pages.
