Captain Witold Pilecki Witold’s Report Auschwitz from WitoldWitold’s Report’s Report from from Auschwitz Auschwitz www.rtmpilecki.eu The Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Mr. Andrzej Duda Captain Witold Pilecki Witold’s Report from Auschwitz FOREWORD BY ANDRZEJ DUDA – thE PREsiDENt OF thE REPUBlic OF POlAND*1 President of the Republic of Poland Warsaw, 29 November 2016 Foreword to publication entitled Witold’s Report by the APOSTOLICUM Publishing House Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki was one of the greatest heroes of Poland, Europe and the entire free world in the 20th century. He belonged to the bravest soldiers of the Republic of Poland and gave countless examples of courage, fortitude and effectiveness. The services he rendered in the armed struggle for independence of his Homeland during the 1920 War with the Bolsheviks, the 1939 Defen- sive War and the Warsaw Uprising cannot be overestimated. His underground activity as ‘a volunteer to Auschwitz’ and a participant of the second conspiracy, aimed against the post-WWII communist regime creates both: a heroic and a tragic epic, which should be known by every person who holds dear such values as the freedom of nations and human dignity. Therefore, I am delighted that readers are now being introduced to the first critical edition of the Witold’s Report. It is the most exhaustive account from the German Extermination Camp Auschwitz authored by Cavalry Captain Pilecki. The report describes one of the most horrific experiences in the history of mankind: slave labour and mass extermination executed by Nazi Germany. The cruelty of totalitarianism shows what man is capable of doing when Christian values and universal ethical rules are rejected. It reveals fruits of racially motivated hatred and disdain. But at the same time, the report proves that even amid such circumstances, it is up to our will whether we manage to save our humanity and demonstrate solidarity with our neighbours. It is a wonderful testimony of the triumph of the spirit of freedom and patriotism over brutal violence. I am convinced that the Witold’s Report constitutes not only an invaluable historical document but also that it sends an important message for the future. I believe that thanks to this publication, the contemporary Poles, in particular the young ones, will have a chance to get to know better the his- tory of our nation during WWII. I also trust that they will be inspired by the attitude adopted by the author and many persons he described. Andrzej Pilecki, son of the Cavalry Captain, repeatedly quoted the advice given by his father: ‘Love your Homeland as much as your family. Love everyone, serve everyone.’ May, thanks to this book, the timeless last will and testament of Witold Pilecki find heirs and followers for generations to come. /-/ Andrzej Duda *1 Formal translation of the letter. iv v The Pilecki family: Witold with his wife, Maria, and children, Zofia and Andrzej 1934 FOREWORD BY ZOFiA PilEcKA-OPtUŁOWicZ – thE cAPtAiN’s DAUGhtER My parents, Maria and Witold, were real jewels for me; they were my biggest treasure. I think of my daddy as a daughter thinks of her caring father, her best friend, a missed family member, warm and close... However, more often now I think of him as a hero, a champion, a role model and a per- son who is unshakable and honoured by his country. I am now less the ‘Little Lady General,’ as he called me, but like thousands and millions of Poles I am more the heir- ess of his duty for Poland. Like many Poles I owe him the passing of national values to our generation. I am very pleased that more and more schools are named after Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki; I am happy that many young people take part in marathons, peaceful marches and other projects in his memory. I must admit, that sometimes I do not know whether I am just one of many, or still the ‘Little Lady General,’ who is honored and distinguished because of him. Cavalry Cap- tain Witold Pilecki became a national treasure and an impressive dowry for Polish eagles in their duties for Poland. Ultimately, I think the more he is everyone’s, then he becomes mine even more. I would like to thank authors and publishers for the testimony to his memory which is presented in this publication. vii FOREWORD BY WitOlD WAsZcZYKOWsKi – MiNistER OF FOREiGN AFFAiRs OF thE REPUBlic OF POlAND Dear Readers, Witold’s Report makes shocking reading as it shakes your conscience awake through stealing its peace and generating protesting thoughts; you will read in disbelief about the dreadful, dehumanizing things perpetrated in 20th century Europe. A full awareness of such atrocities as committed by the Germans during World War II ex- ists in modern, contemporary societies. However, this awareness only seems to exist in the form of frequently unfair stereotypes, perpetuated by leading authorities on the subject, rather than as an event report verified at source and supported by his- torical analysis. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. The disproportion of strength between the two sides can be compared to the biblical struggle between David and Goliath – Goliath, the battle hardened, colossal and well-trained beast-soldier fighting a young boy – a shepherd, who had never taken up arms. The German army was double the size of Poland’s, German tanks outnumbered Poland’s four times and German planes were five times more numerous than Poland’s. At the time of the invasion, Poland had existed as an independent country for only 21 years, having won its freedom after 123 years of partitions among three superpowers with the blood of the one-thousand year-old indomitable nation. The real-life struggle unfortunately did not end in a bib- lical victory – after World War II, Poland became a satellite state of the Soviet Union following a decision taken by the Allies. Nazi Germany, with its ideology of the master race, turned the war machine into an instrument of extermination of other nations, and the concentration camps the Ger- mans had built in Poland – conquered and abandoned in its struggle against the invad- er – became death factories. According to the most recent historical research, approxi- mately 60 million people were killed during World War II and the number of victims of ix Witold Waszczykowski Nazi Germany, which had taken measures to exterminate whole nations, ranged from over 10 million to over 13 million people, depending on the source, including 6 million Jews. The majority of the victims died in German concentration camps located in Ger- man-occupied Poland. The heroism of Witold Pilecki, the author of reports from KL Auschwitz, is undeni- able. Pilecki, a Polish Army officer, who fought bravely during the September Cam- paign, joined the resistance movement when the situation became hopeless and when regular struggle against the German occupier became pointless. The first pieces of information about KL Auschwitz reached Pilecki’s underground organization in the second half of 1940. It soon became obvious that camps of this type were being es- tablished on a mass scale across German-occupied Poland and the reports that came from them were terrifying. Cavalry Captain Pilecki volunteered to collect intelligence about KL Auschwitz from the inside and on 19 September 1940 walked into a roundup under the false name of Tomasz Serafiński. Pilecki spent over 2,5 years in the camp as a forced labourer, living in extreme condi- tions. In his own account, the situation has ‘long since crossed the line of what people “on earth” call “danger.”’ He managed to establish a clandestine resistance organization that supported prisoners and was entirely made up of inmates. He always tried to lift their spirits while collecting information about the German genocide, finding ways to pass the intelligence outside the camp’s barbed wire fence. He managed to make a dar- ing escape on the night of April 26, 1943, an extraordinary feat considering that very few inmates attempted to escape and those who did so, were usually killed. The testimony of bestial atrocities committed in the German concentration camp KL Auschwitz provided by Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, in addition to Jan Karski’s account, represents an invaluable source of historical information about the German atrocities during World War II. What can humanity possibly say today, the same humanity which wants to prove the progress of culture and puts itself, as being from the twentieth century, at a much higher level than the humanity of the centuries of yore? Can we, the people of the twentieth century, even look at the faces of those who lived before us and – a funny thing – argue our superiority? When, in our time, a ‘cover’ of the past has already been removed, an armed mass destroys not an enemy army, but entire nations, helpless x Foreword societies, by means of the latest technologies. The progress of civiliza- tion – yes! But the progress of culture??? – ridiculous. We have gone far too far, my friends, horribly so. A dreadful thing indeed, there are no words to describe it... I wanted to say: animal-like cruelty... But no! We are a whole level of hell worse than animals! I have every right to make such a statement, especially after seeing all these things I had seen and after what started happening in Auschwitz a year later. It is hard to comprehend the extent of brutality committed by the German Reich, es- pecially when you read Witold Pilecki’s report in a cozy, warm home, filled with the laughter of children playing in the next room.