Free Republic

Witold Pilecki Born May 13, 1901, Olonets, Karelia, Russia. Died May 25, 1948, Warsaw, Poland. Witold Pilecki (May 13, 1901 – May 25, 1948); codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafinski, Druh, Witold) was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, founder of the resistance movement Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) and member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). During World War II he was the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While there, he organized inmate resistance, and as early as 1940 informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's camp atrocities. He escaped from...

Pilecki's early life Witold Pilecki was born May 13, 1901, in Olonets (in Polish, Oloniec) on the shores of Lake Ladoga in Karelia, Russia, where his family had been forcibly resettled by Tsarist Russian authorities after the suppression of Poland's January Uprising of 1863-1864. His grandfather, Józef Pilecki, had spent seven years in exile in Siberia for his part in the Uprising. In 1910 Pilecki moved with his family to Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where he completed Commercial School and joined the secret ZHP scouts organization. In 1916 he moved to Orel, Russia, where he founded a local ZHP group....