Polish Auschwitz volunteer report to reach Polish diplomatic missions
This is a great thing that owning to cooperation with the Foreign Ministry the Witold's report will now reach all Polish diplomatic missions abroad (...). The fact that the book was published by a NGO is significant", deputy head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) Dariusz Gwizdala said.
It means that we all can get engaged and support the government in promoting Polish heroes, Gwizdala went on.
He made the statement during the presentation of a unique "Witold's Report" book published by the Cracow's "Where" foundation, The Study of Underground Poland in London and APOSTOLICUM publishing in Warsaw's 'PASTA' Building on Wednesday.
Pilecki, called "the bravest of the brave" and considered one of top 5 war heroes of all time was the author of the so-called Witold's Report, the first comprehensive account of proceedings in the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Holocaust.
During World War Two Pilecki volunteered for a resistance operation to get imprisoned in the Auschwitz death camp, where he planned to gather intelligence and escape. At Auschwitz Pilecki organized a resistance movement and as early as 1941 informed the Western Allies about Nazi atrocities in the camp. After escaping from Auschwitz in 1943, he took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
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The publication of Witold's Report is prefaced by the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda. Present are the daughter of Captain Pilecki, Zofia Pilecka - Optulowicz and MoD, Prof. Wojciech Fałkowski.
Witold's report was presented at the International Book Fair in London, promoting Poland's "bravest of the brave" among both compatriots (with the support of the Polish Institute and the Polish Social and Cultural Center), as well as foreigners at the fair in Olympia.
Rotamaster Witold Pilecki's report (a famous report from the German death camp in Auschwitz) was the first one of this kind. It was developed very conscientiously, with enormous care for fidelity to the original manuscript. The seemingly insignificant emotional, sometimes even unemotional and rough language of the Report, shows with exceptional precision the "hell on earth".
Note 1: Witold Pilecki was a Polish soldier and rotamaster in the pre-war Polich cavalry. In German-occupied Poland he founded the Secret Polish Army resistance group in November 1939, subsequently joining the 1942-formed underground Home Army (AK).
Pilecki, called "the bravest of the brave" and considered one of top 5 war heroes of all time was the author of the so-called Witold's Report, the first comprehensive account of proceedings in the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Holocaust.
During World War Two Pilecki volunteered for a resistance operation to get imprisoned in the Auschwitz death camp, where he planned to gather intelligence and escape. At Auschwitz Pilecki organized a resistance movement and as early as 1941 informed the Western Allies about Nazi atrocities in the camp. After escaping from Auschwitz in 1943, he took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
He remained loyal to the London-based Polish exile government after the communist takeover of Poland, and in 1947 was arrested on charges of working for "foreign imperialism". He was executed in 1948 after a show trial. His body is still to be found. Information about his activities and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime until 1989.
Note 2: PASTA building was a pre-war Polish telephone operator, and the first sky-scrapper in Russian Empire, which occupied part of Poland's territory before WWI. During the Warsaw Uprising, on August 20, 1944, the building was captured by Polish insurgents of AK battalion "Kiliński” after 20 days of bloody fight against Germans. It was one of the most notable successes of Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising.
Source: PAP