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"[...] Pilecki was 38 when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, triggering the start of World War II. He helped organize a resistance campaign during which many fellow fighters were caught and sent to Auschwitz, which in the early war years served more as a camp for Polish resistance fighters than Jews. That inspired him to hatch an audacious plan: He told other resistance commanders that he wanted to become an Auschwitz inmate to check on rumors of atrocities.
Carrying documents bearing the alias Tomasz Serafinski, the Catholic cavalry officer walked into the German SS street roundup in Warsaw in September 1940, and was put on a train transport to Auschwitz, where he was given prisoner number 4859.
He was "exceptionally courageous," said Jacek Pawlowicz, a historian with Warsaw's Institute of National Remembrance.
Pilecki is the only person known to have volunteered for Auschwitz. His terse dispatches to the outside world were slips of thin paper stitched inside clothes of inmates leaving the camp or left in nearby fields for others to collect. They included only code names for inmates who were beaten to death, executed by gunfire or gassed. As sketchy as they were, they were the first eyewitness account of the Nazi death machine at Auschwitz.
Pilecki survived hard labor, beatings, cold and typhoid fever thanks to support from a clandestine resistance network that he managed to organize inside the camp. Some of its members had access to food, others to clothes or medicines.
He plotted a revolt that was to release inmates with the help of an outside attack by resistance fighters; it was never attempted because considered too risky, Pawlowicz said.
Pilecki escaped in April 1943 when he realized that the SS might uncover his work. With two other men he ran from a night shift at a bakery that was outside the death camp's barbed wire fence.
After his escape, Pilecki wrote three detailed reports on the extermination camp.
One describes how his transport was met by yelling SS men and attacking dogs: "They told one of us to run to a post away from the road, and immediately sent a machine gun round after him. Killed him. Ten random colleagues were taken out of the group and shot, as they were walking, as 'collective responsibility' for the 'escape' that the SS-men arranged themselves."
Pilecki's heroics were for the most part in vain. Even though his accounts of gas chambers made it all the way to Poland's government-in-exile in London and to other Western capitals, few believed what they were reading.[...]"
Unbelievable story, anybody ever heard about it???
Here is wikipedia's page dedicated to Witold Pilecki, which corroborates the story as presented by Haaretz:
"[...] Pilecki was 38 when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, triggering the start of World War II. He helped organize a resistance campaign during which many fellow fighters were caught and sent to Auschwitz, which in the early war years served more as a camp for Polish resistance fighters than Jews. That inspired him to hatch an audacious plan: He told other resistance commanders that he wanted to become an Auschwitz inmate to check on rumors of atrocities.
Carrying documents bearing the alias Tomasz Serafinski, the Catholic cavalry officer walked into the German SS street roundup in Warsaw in September 1940, and was put on a train transport to Auschwitz, where he was given prisoner number 4859.
He was "exceptionally courageous," said Jacek Pawlowicz, a historian with Warsaw's Institute of National Remembrance.
Pilecki is the only person known to have volunteered for Auschwitz. His terse dispatches to the outside world were slips of thin paper stitched inside clothes of inmates leaving the camp or left in nearby fields for others to collect. They included only code names for inmates who were beaten to death, executed by gunfire or gassed. As sketchy as they were, they were the first eyewitness account of the Nazi death machine at Auschwitz.
Pilecki survived hard labor, beatings, cold and typhoid fever thanks to support from a clandestine resistance network that he managed to organize inside the camp. Some of its members had access to food, others to clothes or medicines.
He plotted a revolt that was to release inmates with the help of an outside attack by resistance fighters; it was never attempted because considered too risky, Pawlowicz said.
Pilecki escaped in April 1943 when he realized that the SS might uncover his work. With two other men he ran from a night shift at a bakery that was outside the death camp's barbed wire fence.
After his escape, Pilecki wrote three detailed reports on the extermination camp.
One describes how his transport was met by yelling SS men and attacking dogs: "They told one of us to run to a post away from the road, and immediately sent a machine gun round after him. Killed him. Ten random colleagues were taken out of the group and shot, as they were walking, as 'collective responsibility' for the 'escape' that the SS-men arranged themselves."
Pilecki's heroics were for the most part in vain. Even though his accounts of gas chambers made it all the way to Poland's government-in-exile in London and to other Western capitals, few believed what they were reading.[...]"
Unbelievable story, anybody ever heard about it???
Here is wikipedia's page dedicated to Witold Pilecki, which corroborates the story as presented by Haaretz:
C'mon guys? Deliberately entering Auschwitz as a prisoner, organizing resistance group and then escaping?
This is bigger than all James Bond movies together...
Nobody finds this story as exceptional as I do?
No single comment.
I just saw the thread. I had heard of the story before and it was the source of information that was sent to the Allies regarding the camps. Definitely James Bond to the extreme kind of stuff. I'm not really sure what to add to your posts other then, thanks for bringing this story to more peoples attention.
I just saw the thread. I had heard of the story before and it was the source of information that was sent to the Allies regarding the camps. Definitely James Bond to the extreme kind of stuff. I'm not really sure what to add to your posts other then, thanks for bringing this story to more peoples attention.
I am probably more surprised I never heard about it before. I think this guy should get much more recognition for what he did. I don't want to see a Hollywood version of events but according to Haaretz, and to the best of my knowledge, nobody ever did anything similar in Auschwitz or any o largest concentration camps in occupied Europe. I definitely warrants an inclusion in history books.
"[...] Pilecki was 38 when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, triggering the start of World War II. He helped organize a resistance campaign during which many fellow fighters were caught and sent to Auschwitz, which in the early war years served more as a camp for Polish resistance fighters than Jews. That inspired him to hatch an audacious plan: He told other resistance commanders that he wanted to become an Auschwitz inmate to check on rumors of atrocities.
Carrying documents bearing the alias Tomasz Serafinski, the Catholic cavalry officer walked into the German SS street roundup in Warsaw in September 1940, and was put on a train transport to Auschwitz, where he was given prisoner number 4859.
He was "exceptionally courageous," said Jacek Pawlowicz, a historian with Warsaw's Institute of National Remembrance.
Pilecki is the only person known to have volunteered for Auschwitz. His terse dispatches to the outside world were slips of thin paper stitched inside clothes of inmates leaving the camp or left in nearby fields for others to collect. They included only code names for inmates who were beaten to death, executed by gunfire or gassed. As sketchy as they were, they were the first eyewitness account of the Nazi death machine at Auschwitz.
Pilecki survived hard labor, beatings, cold and typhoid fever thanks to support from a clandestine resistance network that he managed to organize inside the camp. Some of its members had access to food, others to clothes or medicines.
He plotted a revolt that was to release inmates with the help of an outside attack by resistance fighters; it was never attempted because considered too risky, Pawlowicz said.
Pilecki escaped in April 1943 when he realized that the SS might uncover his work. With two other men he ran from a night shift at a bakery that was outside the death camp's barbed wire fence.
After his escape, Pilecki wrote three detailed reports on the extermination camp.
One describes how his transport was met by yelling SS men and attacking dogs: "They told one of us to run to a post away from the road, and immediately sent a machine gun round after him. Killed him. Ten random colleagues were taken out of the group and shot, as they were walking, as 'collective responsibility' for the 'escape' that the SS-men arranged themselves."
Pilecki's heroics were for the most part in vain. Even though his accounts of gas chambers made it all the way to Poland's government-in-exile in London and to other Western capitals, few believed what they were reading.[...]"
Unbelievable story, anybody ever heard about it???
Here is wikipedia's page dedicated to Witold Pilecki, which corroborates the story as presented by Haaretz:
I read in a book about the Polish Resistance some mention about how they were the first to inform the outside world what was going inside of Aushwitz, but I never actually knew much about the details of who infiltrated the camp. Good information--thanks for posting that. Now I'd like to read more about this story.
Some people seem to forget that despite the fact that Poland was among the most brutally occupied of all countries during World War II, the Polish people had one of the most active resistance movements--and that many members attempted to save Polish Jews---despite some of the anti-Semitic biases evident prior to the war in Polish society. And the Poles didn't have a cozy collaborationist government like many other German-occupied nations during the war--they never really stopped fighting.
As far as I know, Armja Krajowa (Polish non-communist resistance) was the only resistance movement to have a specific branch designed to save Jews from Germans.
Given the circumstances "too risky" seems like an oddly lame excuse... Every day thousands of Allied soldiers were dying in "too risky" situations because this is an inherent aspect of war.
Quote:
Originally Posted by noworneveragain
He plotted a revolt that was to release inmates with the help of an outside attack by resistance fighters; it was never attempted because considered too risky, Pawlowicz said.
Given the circumstances "too risky" seems like an oddly lame excuse... Every day thousands of Allied soldiers were dying in "too risky" situations because this is an inherent aspect of war.
They theorized the plot in early 1943. They would risk the entire resistance movement for a small chance of escape of some prisoners and damage to the camp. Even in war, one needs to make calculated choices and risking all for a small temporary gain is not the way to win.
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