Witold Pilecki was born into a patriotic Polish family, which had been exiled to Siberia as part of Tsarist repressions. After Poland regained its independence, Pilecki led the life of an active citizen, landowner and father.

 

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, as a Polish soldier, he volunteered to be captured and interned at the German Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he established a clandestine organization and prepared reports for the Polish underground state concerning conditions at the camp and the Germans’ criminal activities.

 

After the Second World War, he continued his fight for freedom in communist-controlled Poland, building an intelligence network for the Polish government-in-exile. Arrested by the Office of Public Security in 1947, he was interrogated and brutally tortured, and subsequently sentenced to death in a show trial. The sentence was carried out on 25 May 1948. Despite many efforts, his burial site has never been discovered.

 

Witold Pilecki symbolizes the Polish experience of confrontation with two totalitarian regimes in the 20th century.