Born on May 13, 1901, and passing away on May 25, 1948, Pilecki is remembered as "the Auschwitz volunteer" and a victim of two totalitarian systems.
In 1940, he volunteered to be captured and sent to the Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp on an intelligence mission.
His reports from Auschwitz provided valuable insights into the conditions at the camp and warned the world about German plans to exterminate European Jews. Pilecki's contribution to the fight against Nazism did not end there.
He escaped from Auschwitz in 1943 and fought in the 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Germans
After the war, Pilecki joined the Polish armed forces in Italy and returned to communist-ruled Poland as an intelligence agent.
He was captured by Poland’s communist authorities, charged with espionage and planning to assassinate several communist security service officials, and executed less than two months after receiving a death sentence in March 1948 following a show trial.
Despite the injustice he faced, Pilecki's legacy lives on. He was rehabilitated in 1990 and posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state decoration, in 2008. In 2013, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel.
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