Pilecki, who was born on May 13, 1901 and died on May 25, 1948, 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 an insight into the conditions at the camp and warned the world about German plans to exterminate European Jews.
Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz in 1943. He reached Warsaw where he fought in the city's 1944 uprising against the Germans.
After the war, Pilecki went to Italy and joined the Polish armed forces in the West. He then returned 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 and plans to assassinate several communist security service officials.
Pilecki was handed a death sentence by a Warsaw court on March 15, 1948. He was executed less than two months later.
In 1990, he 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.
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Source: IAR, PAP