Witold Pilecki: the man who volunteered for Auschwitz

On September 19, 1940, in Warsaw, the Germans organized a round-up in Żoliborz. Most people tried to hide. One man deliberately allowed himself to be detained. He had documents under the name Tomasz Serafiński and one goal: to get to the German concentration camp Auschwitz, build a conspiracy there, and inform the world about what was happening inside. His name was Witold Pilecki.

He spent in the camp, as he wrote himself, "nine hundred forty-seven days and nights," and then escaped through the camp bakery. He survived the Warsaw Uprising and German captivity. He was killed in 1948 in Warsaw, shot under a communist court's sentence. His grave has not been found to this day. This guide tells his story based on sources from the Auschwitz Museum, IPN, and the Pilecki Institute, with lesser-known details and a fair separation of facts from legends.

The boy from Karelia who founded scouting in Russia

Witold Pilecki was born on May 13, 1901, in Ołońce in Karelia, in northern Russia. His father, Julian, was a forester, a graduate of the forestry institute in St. Petersburg. The family came from Nowogródczyzna and lost most of their estate after the January Uprising. IPN, biography of Pilecki, years 1901–1921.

In 1910, his mother moved with the children to Vilnius, where Witold attended a commercial school and joined a secret scouting group. His father, who stayed in Karelia, sent each child a postcard with a rhyme written especially for them every week. World War I found the family on vacation, and Witold ended up in Orzeł in Russia. There, he founded his first scouting troop. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home in Ostrów Mazowiecka.

As a teenager, he fought in the self-defense of Vilnius and in a cavalry unit, and in August 1920, he defended the outskirts of Warsaw during the war with the Bolsheviks. He graduated from high school only in May 1921. IPN. The museum in Ostrów Mazowiecka preserves over a hundred of his letters to his first love, Kazimiera Dacz, found years later in an attic. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home.

Landowner, painter, and "devil" from Sukurcze

After the war, Pilecki studied as a free listener at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius but interrupted his studies due to lack of funds. In 1926, he took over the family estate in Sukurcze in the Lidzkie district, now in Belarus. He founded an agricultural circle and a dairy. He wrote poetry and painted, and two of his paintings ended up in the parish church in Krupa. IPN, biography, years 1921–1939.

His son Andrzej recalled in a conversation recorded for IPN that locals called his father "the devil" because he had boundless energy. He established the dairy so that farmers would not have to sell milk to intermediaries for pennies. When a part broke in a borrowed machine, he himself started an old forge and forged it. Andrzej Pilecki's account, IPN oral history archive.

In 1929, he met Maria Ostrowska, a teacher from Ostrów Mazowiecka, while helping to paint decorations for a school play. He courted her for two years. They married on April 7, 1931. In 1932, their son Andrzej was born, and in 1933, their daughter Zofia. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home. The Sukurcze estate did not survive the war and was razed to the ground. The Pilecki Institute in Berlin.

September 1939 and the Secret Polish Army

In September 1939, Pilecki fought in the 19th Infantry Division near Piotrków Trybunalski, and after its defeat, in the 41st Reserve Division. When the division was dissolved on September 22, he did not go into captivity or flee abroad. IPN, biography, September 1939. His horse was killed near Piotrków. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home.

Andrzej Pilecki shared two stories from those weeks that he learned from others. In Warsaw, his father was approached in German by a man in a bowler hat, and his father struck him with the flat of his saber. Later, while riding in uniform to Ostrów, he galloped across a bridge over the Brok next to a guardhouse where the Germans were playing cards and "only saw the horse's rear end." Andrzej Pilecki's account for IPN. These are family memories that cannot be confirmed in documents.

On November 9, 1939, Pilecki co-founded the underground Secret Polish Army in Warsaw and became its chief of staff. Auschwitz Museum, the story of Witold Pilecki. According to his son, he later repeated: "No one ever released me from my oath." His wife and children hid in areas occupied by the Soviets to avoid deportation to the east, and in April 1940, she managed to reach her parents in Ostrów Mazowiecka. IPN.

The round-up in Żoliborz, which he volunteered for

The conspirators knew little about the camp in Auschwitz, to which the Germans began sending Polish prisoners from June 1940. Pilecki volunteered to change that. The mission had four goals: to build a conspiracy in the camp, to pass information outside, to rescue prisoners, and to prepare for a possible uprising in the camp. Auschwitz Museum.

He found documents under the name Tomasz Serafiński in the Warsaw apartment of Dr. Helena Pawłowska, where the real Serafiński was staying after the capital's capitulation. Auschwitz Museum about the drawing of Pilecki and Serafiński. On September 19, 1940, at his sister-in-law's apartment in Żoliborz, he allowed himself to be detained during a round-up. With the second Warsaw transport, which included 1,705 prisoners, including Władysław Bartoszewski, he arrived at Auschwitz. He received number 4859. Auschwitz Museum.

British historian M. R. D. Foot, a specialist in the resistance movement, wrote in 1975: "Think for a moment about what Witold Pilecki did: he allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans in the conscious hope that he would be sent to Auschwitz, achieved that goal, and then achieved two more, even more difficult ones." Foreword by M. R. D. Foot to Józef Garliński's book. Foot placed Pilecki among six heroes in his book "Six Faces of Courage" about the bravest people in the resistance movement. Publisher about the book "Six Faces of Courage".

Number 4859 and the conspiracy behind the wires

In the camp, Pilecki pretended to be a tanner. At first, he refused to beat fellow prisoners on the block leader's orders and was punished by being sent to the hardest work details. Nevertheless, he began to build a network: first secret "fives," where members did not know people from other groups, then platoons and battalions. Auschwitz Museum. By the spring of 1943, the Union of Military Organizations had about 800 sworn members. Anna Zechenter, Przystanek Historia (IPN).

How the camp conspiracy operated

• Hospital as a refuge: Doctor Władysław Dering admitted organization members to the hospital, protected them from selections, and hid the cards of people destined for death. About 200 people reported to the hospital daily, while there were about ten places available.
• Duplicate keys: conspirators made duplicate keys to the reporting box in block 15 and destroyed reports before the SS men read them.
• Work assignments: Lt. Mieczysław Januszewski influenced who would go to lighter work details in the camp's labor office.

All three examples are described in educational material from the Auschwitz Museum. On November 11, 1941, Pilecki, still a prisoner, was promoted to lieutenant for his activities in the camp. However, the command of the Home Army did not approve the plan for an armed attack on the camp. Auschwitz Museum on the 67th anniversary of Pilecki's death.

The first report reached London in March 1941

Already in October 1940, a few weeks after his arrival, Pilecki sent out the first report. It was carried out by a prisoner released from the camp. The message reached the commander of the Union of Armed Struggle, General Stefan Rowecki, and via Stockholm, it arrived in London by March 18, 1941. Auschwitz Museum, IPN, "Pilecki escapes from hell".

It is important what these first reports concerned. In 1940-1941, Auschwitz mainly imprisoned Poles, and the mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers began later. Pilecki's first messages described the conditions in the camp and the fate of Polish prisoners. We discuss what his later reports said below.

Escape through the bakery on Easter Monday

In the spring of 1943, Pilecki faced exposure. He decided to escape together with Jan Redzej and Edward Ciesielski. They chose the Easter period when some SS men were on leave. They arranged for a night shift in the camp bakery outside the main fence. On the night of April 26 to 27, 1943, from Easter Monday to Tuesday, they got outside. IPN, "Pilecki escapes from hell".

Sources describe the moment of escape differently. IPN writes about breaking down wooden doors. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home states that the escapees cut the alarm wire and opened the outer door with a prepared wrench. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home. It is possible that both versions refer to different doors.

The escapees walked along the railway embankment, then along the Soła and Vistula rivers, through the area of Wieliczka towards Bochnia, where they made contact with the Home Army. IPN. According to his son, they walked about 120 km. Pilecki summarized it in one sentence: "I left at night just as I arrived, so I was in that hell for nine hundred forty-seven days and nights." The number is accurate: from September 22, 1940, to April 27, 1943, exactly 947 days pass. He also wrote about his stay with bitter irony that he "paid a very small price for such a long stay in this sanatorium." The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home.

The real Tomasz Serafiński paid for someone else's escape

After the escape, Pilecki went to Nowy Wiśnicz and stayed with a man whose name he used in the camp. The real Tomasz Serafiński was a reserve officer and deputy commander of the AK unit in Nowy Wiśnicz. He lived in the house "Koryznówka," where Jan Matejko liked to spend his vacations. Pilecki stayed there for over three months and wrote the first version of the report. Auschwitz Museum.

However, the false identity had a price. On December 25, 1943, the Germans arrested the real Serafiński as a fugitive from Auschwitz. He was tortured in Bochnia and in the Kraków prison Montelupich. He owed his release to his wife Ludmila, who explained the mistake to the Kraków Gestapo. He was released after three weeks but never fully recovered his health. There.

In the summer of 1943, Jan Stasiniewicz drew a double portrait of both men in Koryznówka. On the back, Pilecki signed as "Witold Tomasz Serafiński" and added the dates of arrest and escape. In 2019, Serafiński's daughter donated the drawing to the Auschwitz Museum. Museum director Piotr Cywiński stated that it is one of the very few items associated with Pilecki. Auschwitz Museum, announcement from 2019.

Reports that described the gas chambers

After his escape, Pilecki wrote three main reports. The first was created in June 1943 in Nowy Wiśnicz, the second, the so-called "Report W," in August 1943 in Warsaw, and the third, the most extensive, in 1945 in Italy. All three describe the gassing of people. In the report from Wiśnicz, Pilecki wrote that Jews were "gassed without records by the thousands," and Soviet prisoners were gassed in block 11. Demagog, analysis of Pilecki's reports. The claim that Pilecki did not know about the gas chambers is therefore false.

The 1945 report is over 100 pages long. It was handed over to General Tadeusz Pełczyński, and confirmation of its authenticity is kept by the Study of the Polish Underground in London. A copy reached the Auschwitz Museum in 1979, and the full text was published for the first time only in 2000. Przystanek Historia (IPN). The report was also published in English as "The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery," which allows this story to be shown to children raised abroad.

Andrzej Pilecki recounted that his father wrote the 1945 report at night in Italian San Giorgio, and in the morning, he read it to his friend, Jan Mierzanowski, on a pedal boat, who suggested corrections. Andrzej Pilecki's account for IPN.

From the Warsaw Uprising to Murnau and Italy

After his escape, Pilecki served in the Kedyw of the Home Army Command. The Pilecki Institute, "Our Patron". On August 1, 1944, he joined the Warsaw Uprising as a private, despite a ban on participating in the fighting. He commanded the defense of the redoubt at Starynkiewicz Square, known as "Witold's Redoubt." Jan Redzej, his companion in the escape from Auschwitz, was killed on August 5, 1944. Auschwitz Museum.

After the Uprising's fall, Pilecki ended up in German captivity: first in Lamsdorf, then in an officer camp in Bavarian Murnau. Auschwitz Museum. On April 29, 1945, the camp was liberated by the Americans. In July 1945, Pilecki reached the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy and met General Władysław Anders. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home.

One of the strangest anecdotes comes from Italy. According to Mierzanowski's account, relayed by Andrzej, an eagle in a cage pierced Pilecki's hand with its claw. Pilecki simply said, "Calm down," waited for the bird to let go, and bandaged his hand with a handkerchief. Andrzej Pilecki's account. This is a third-hand account, so treat it as a family story.

Return to the country, investigation, and sentence

At the end of 1945, Pilecki returned to Poland as "Roman Jezierski" and built an intelligence network for the 2nd Corps. Auschwitz Museum. On May 8, 1947, he was arrested by the communist Ministry of Public Security. The interrogators were exceptionally brutal, and the torture is confirmed by the accounts of fellow prisoners and two priests. IPN, biography, years 1947–1948.

In this part of the story, there is a detail that particularly moves. Józef Cyrankiewicz, a former Auschwitz prisoner and then prime minister, did not intercede for his fellow prisoner. According to IPN, he wrote to the presiding judge to omit the camp activities of "Serafiński" and treat Pilecki as an "enemy of the people." There.

The trial of "Witold's group" began on March 3, 1948, before the Military District Court in Warsaw. On March 15, three death sentences were issued: for Pilecki, Maria Szelągowska, and Tadeusz Płużański. The latter two had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Appeals for clemency were made by a lawyer, his wife, and friends from Auschwitz, but Bolesław Bierut did not grant clemency. IPN, announcement on the 74th anniversary of the sentence.

On the evening of May 25, 1948, Pilecki was shot in the prison on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw. He was 47 years old. Auschwitz Museum. During the last visit, he reportedly whispered to his wife: "Auschwitz was a trifle compared to this." This wording is provided by IPN. Przystanek Historia (IPN). In other publications, the sentence appears without the words "compared to this." Dzieje.pl (PAP). We have not found a written account from Maria Pilecka herself, so the exact wording remains uncertain.

The family waited for him for decades

His relatives long did not know what had happened. Andrzej Pilecki recalled that at home they said: "Maybe they have him in Łubianka, or maybe they are torturing him, but he is alive." Later, he posted hand-prepared information about his father on church boards, including near St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Żoliborz. He brought a more than 20-kilogram paving stone with an inscription to the Warsaw "Łączka," but it disappeared after two days. Andrzej Pilecki's account for IPN.

The family only learned for sure about his death during the rehabilitation trial in 1990. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home. Pilecki's children also paid for their father's surname: Andrzej and Zofia could not study and had difficulty finding work. The Pilecki Institute in Berlin.

The grave has still not been found

Pilecki was most likely secretly buried in "Łączka," which is a section of the Military Cemetery at Powązki, where the communists hid the bodies of those executed. IPN. IPN has been conducting exhumations there since 2012. In 2017, it completed the last stage of work and found the remains of about 100 people, but Pilecki was not among the identified. Some remains were destroyed in 1980 during the construction of new graves. IPN then began searching in the area of the former prison on Rakowiecka. Dzieje.pl (PAP) on the last stage of work at "Łączka". In a 2022 announcement, IPN stated that Pilecki's body had not been found, and the perpetrators had not been judged. IPN, announcement from 2022.

Rehabilitation, award, and the Institute named after him

• 1990: The Supreme Court overturned the verdict and acquitted the convicted. IPN gives the date of the verdict as October 1, 1990. IPN.
• 2006: President Lech Kaczyński posthumously awarded Pilecki the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish decoration.
• 2013: Pilecki was posthumously promoted to colonel. Auschwitz Museum.
• The Pilecki Institute: The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor was named after him with the consent of his children, Zofia Pilecka-Optułowicz and Andrzej Pilecki. It also has a branch in Berlin. The Pilecki Institute.
• 2023: On the 75th anniversary of his death, President Andrzej Duda paid tribute at the execution wall on Rakowiecka together with Pilecki's daughter. IPN, 75th anniversary of death.
• London: Pilecki is also remembered abroad. The Polish Embassy in London organizes commemorations, and British author Jack Fairweather wrote a book about him, "The Volunteer." Polish Embassy in London.

If you are in Poland, you can visit the Museum of the Pilecki Family Home in Ostrów Mazowiecka. The Museum of the Pilecki Family Home.

Myths and exaggerations surrounding Pilecki

What we do not know for sure

• The exact wording of the words about "trifle." IPN and PAP provide slightly different versions, and we have not found the original account from Maria Pilecka.
• How the bakery doors were opened. Sources describe either breaking down the doors or opening them with a key after cutting the alarm wire.
• When and whether all reports from 1943 reached London. Fairweather claims that all of Pilecki's reports reached there, but we have not seen documents confirming this.
• Where Pilecki's remains are. The latest IPN announcement we have found is from 2022 and states that they have not been found.
• Anecdotes from family memories: the saber in Warsaw, galloping across the bridge over the Brok, and the eagle in Italy. These are accounts passed down by his son, partly from second and third-hand sources.