Poland honours heroic WWII Captain
PR dla Zagranicy
Veronika Joy
17.05.2013 16:30
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A report by Michal Kubicki
"One of greatest wartime heroes" is remembered this month, 65 years after he was executed by the communists.
Witold Pilecki, Polish hero of Home Army Wikimedia Commons/T.Bór Komorowski "Armia podziemna" Warsaw 1990
During World War II, Witold Pilecki volunteered for a Polish resistance operation in order to get imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was then able to write Witold's report, the first intelligence report on Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. This document was then sent to London to the Polish government-in-exile, as a way to convince the Allies that the Holocaust was taking place.
In 1948, Pilecki was executed by the Stalinist secret police on charges of working for "foreign imperialism." It wasn't until 1989 that information on his exploits and fate was released.
A wide range of events will be held in May in honour of Captain Witold Pilecki, reports Michal Kubicki.