The unanimous decision by the European Parliament leadership was taken in response to an initiative by Polish MEP Anna Fotyga representing Poland's conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
In a Facebook post, Fotyga, who served as Polish foreign minister from 2006 to 2007, thanked Lithuanian MEP Rasie Juknevicziene, Latvian MEP Roberts Zile and all those ”who actively supported the initiative to honour the memory of the hero who fought against two totalitarian systems.”
In 1940, Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz in order to gain firsthand knowledge of the conditions there.
In his reports from Auschwitz, he wrote about the situation in the camp and German plans to exterminate European Jews.
In 1943, after escaping from Auschwitz, Pilecki reached Warsaw, and a year later fought in the Warsaw Uprising.
After the war, he went to Italy and joined the Second Corps, part of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. He was then sent to communist-ruled Poland as an intelligence agent.
He was captured and executed by Poland’s communist authorities three years after the end of World War II, following a show trial in which he was charged with espionage for “foreign imperialism” and plans to assassinate several communist security service officials.
Wednesday, March 15, marks 75 years since Pilecki was handed a death sentence by a Warsaw court.
In 1990, Pilecki was rehabilitated and in 2008 posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state decoration. In 2013, he was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel.
His burial place has never been found.
Pilecki’s original 400-page Auschwitz Report was published in the United States in 2012 under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.
(mk/gs)
