69th anniversary of 'Auschwitz volunteer's' execution

The removal of plaster from the walls revealed bullet holes, which suggest it was an execution site at the Warsaw facility, where more than 300 anti-communist partisans were killed in the 1940s and 1950s. The site is now home to a museum.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said Pilecki may have been among those executed at the site.

Also marking the anniversary on Thursday, Pilecki’s daughter’s book, entitled “My Father”, was launched at the museum.

Witold Pilecki is known as the “Auschwitz volunteer” for allowing himself to be arrested by the Germans in 1940 and sent to Auschwitz in order to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions there.

After escaping the Nazi German death camp in 1943, he shared his report with the Polish government-in-exile in London.

Also that year, Pilecki reached Warsaw and a year later fought in the Warsaw Uprising.

After the war, he went to Italy and joined the Second Corps.

He was sent by Polish intelligence to Poland on a mission. However, he was captured and executed by the communist authorities in 1948.

His burial place has never been found.

In 1990, he was rehabilitated, and in 2006 posthumously received the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel in 2013. (vb/pk)

Source: IAR