Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki ( 13 May 190125 May 1948 ; ; codenames " Roman Jezierski , Tomasz Serafiński , Druh , Witold " ) was a Polish soldier ( cavalry officer ) during the Second Polish Republic , the founder of the Secret Polish Army ( " Tajna Armia Polska " ) resistance group in German - occupied Poland in November 1939 and a member of the underground Home Army ( " Armia Krajowa " ) , which was formed in February 1942 . As the author of Witold ' s Report , the first intelligence report on Auschwitz concentration camp , Pilecki enabled the Polish government - in - exile to convince the Allies that the Holocaust was taking place . During World War II , he volunteered for a Polish resistance operation to get imprisoned at Auschwitz in order to gather intelligence and escape . While in the camp , Pilecki organized a resistance movement and as early as 1941 , informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany ' s Auschwitz atrocities . He escaped from the camp in 1943 after nearly 3 years of imprisonment . Pilecki took part in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944 . He remained loyal to the London - based Polish government - in - exile and was executed in 1948 by the Stalinist secret police Urząd Bezpieczeństwa on charges of working for " foreign imperialism " , thought to be a euphemism for MI6 . Until 1989 , information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime . As a result of his deeds , he is considered as " one of the greatest wartime heroes " . In the foreword to the book " The Auschwitz Volunteer : Beyond Bravery " Michael Schudrich , the Chief Rabbi of Poland , wrote as follows : " " When God created the human being , God had in mind that we should all be like Captain Witold Pilecki , of blessed memory . " " In the introduction to that book Norman Davies , a British historian , wrote : " " If there was an Allied hero who deserved to be remembered and celebrated , this was a person with few peers " " . At the commemoration event of International Holocaust Remembrance Day held in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on 27 January 2013 Ryszard Schnepf , the Polish Ambassador to the US , described Pilecki as a " " diamond among Poland ’ s heroes " " and " " the highest example of Polish patriotism " " . Early life . Witold Pilecki was born 13 May 1901 , in Olonets east of Lake Ladoga in Karelia , Russia , where his family had been forcibly resettled by Imperial Russian authorities after the suppression of Poland ' s January Uprising of 1863 – 64 . His grandfather , Józef Pilecki , had spent seven years in exile in Siberia for his part in the rising . In 1910 , Pilecki moved with his family to Wilno ( 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 . During World War I , in 1918 , Pilecki joined a ZHP Scout section of the Polish self - defense units under General Władysław Wejtko in the Wilno area . When his sector of the front was overrun by the Bolsheviks , his unit for a time conducted partisan warfare behind enemy lines . Pilecki then joined the regular Polish Army and took part in the Polish - Soviet War of 1919 – 1920 , serving under Major Jerzy Dąbrowski . He fought in the Polish retreat from Kiev as part of a cavalry unit defending Grodno ( in present - day Belarus ) . On 5 August 1920 , he joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and at Rudniki Forest ( " Puszcza Rudnicka " ) and took part in the liberation of Wilno . He was twice awarded the Krzyż Walecznych ( Cross of Valor ) for gallantry . After the Polish - Soviet War ended in 1921 with the Peace of Riga , Pilecki passed his high - school graduation exams ( " matura " ) in Wilno and passed the exams for a non - commissioned officer position in the Polish Army . He also studied at the Stefan Batory University in Wilno and rebuilt his family estate , ruined during the war . He then took officer training courses . He was assigned to a cavalry regiment in 1926 as ensign , or the second lieutenant of the reserves . While in the reserves , he actively supported local paramilitary training activities . In the interbellum , he worked on his family ' s farm in the village of Sukurcze and was known as a social work activist and an amateur painter . On 7 April 1931 , he married Maria Pilecka ( 19066 February 2002 ) , née Ostrowska . They had two children , born in Wilno : Andrzej ( 16 January 1932 ) and Zofia ( 14 March 1933 ) . In 1938 , he received the Silver Cross of Merit for his involvement in the community and social work . World War II . Shortly before the outbreak of World War II , on 26 August 1939 , Pilecki was mobilized as a cavalry - platoon commander . He was assigned to the 19th Infantry Division under Józef Kwaciszewski , part of the Polish Army Prusy . His unit took part in heavy fighting against the advancing Germans during the invasion of Poland and was partially destroyed . Pilecki ' s platoon withdrew to the southeast , toward Lwów ( now L ' viv , in Ukraine ) and the Romanian bridgehead , and was incorporated into the recently formed 41st Infantry Division , in which he served as divisional second - in - command under Major Jan Włodarkiewicz . During that conflict ( known in Poland as the September Campaign ) , Pilecki and his men destroyed seven German tanks , shot down one aircraft , and destroyed two more on the ground . On 17 September , the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland pursuant to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact . Involved in more heavy fighting on two fronts , Pilecki ' s division was disbanded by 22 September , parts of it surrendering to their enemies . Pilecki returned to Warsaw with his commander , Major Włodarkiewicz . On 9 November 1939 , the two men founded the Secret Polish Army ( " Tajna Armia Polska " , TAP ) , one of the first underground organizations in Poland . TAP provided military expertise and leadership to the Armed Confederation ( " Konfederacja Zbrojna " , KZ , the military arm of " Konfederacja Narodu " the Confederation of the Nation , KN ) . Both KZ and KN were clandestine incarnations of the pre - war National Radical Movement ( " Ruch Narodowo Radykalny " , also known as ONR – " Falanga " – a large extreme - right splinter group of the National Radical Camp ) . The leader of both KN and KZ was Bolesław Piasecki . Pilecki became organizational commander of TAP as it expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce , Radom , Lublin , and other major cities of central Poland . By 1940 , TAP had approximately 8 , 000 men ( more than half of them armed ) , some 20 machine guns , and several anti - tank rifle s . Later , the organization was incorporated into the Union for Armed Struggle ( " Związek Walki Zbrojnej " ) , later renamed and better known as the Home Army ( " Armia Krajowa " , AK ) . Within AK , TAP elements became the core of the " Wachlarz " unit . Auschwitz . In 1940 , Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany ' s Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim ( the Polish name of the locality ) , gather intelligence on the camp from the inside , and organize inmate resistance . Until then , little had been known about the Germans ' running of the camp and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp . His superiors approved the plan and provided him with a false identity card in the name of " Tomasz Serafiński . " On 19 September 1940 , he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup ( łapanka ) and was caught by the Germans , along with some 2 , 000 innocent civilians ( among them , Władysław Bartoszewski ) . After two days detention in the Light Horse Guards Barracks , where prisoners suffered beatings with rubber truncheons , Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and was assigned inmate number 4859 . At Auschwitz , while working in various kommando s and surviving pneumonia , Pilecki organized an underground Union of Military Organizations ( Związek Organizacji Wojskowej , ZOW ) . Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW . ZOW ' s tasks were to improve inmate morale , provide news from outside , distribute extra food and clothing to members , set up intelligence networks , and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army , arms airdrop s , or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade , based in Britain . ZOW provided the Polish underground with invaluable information about the camp . From October 1940 , ZOW sent reports to Warsaw , and beginning in March 1941 , Pilecki ' s reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London . In 1942 Pilecki ' s resistance movement were also broadcasting details on the number of arrivals and deaths in the camp , and the inmates ’ state and their conditions using a radio transmitter that was built by camp inmates . The secret radio station , built over seven months using smuggled parts , was broadcasting from the camp until the autumn of 1942 when it was dismantled by Pilecki ' s men after concerns that the Germans might discover its location because of " one of our fellow ' s big mouth " . These reports ( Witold ' s Report ) were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies . Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp or that the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside . Such plans , however , were all judged impossible to carry out . Meanwhile , the Gestapo redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members , succeeding in killing many of them . Pilecki decided to break out of the camp , with the hope of personally convincing Home Army leaders that a rescue attempt was a valid option . When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence , he and two comrades overpowered a guard , cut the phone line and escaped on the night of 26 / 27 April 1943 , taking with them documents stolen from the Germans . Outside the camp . After several days , he made contact with the Home Army units . On 25 August 1943 , Pilecki reached Warsaw and joined the Home Army ' s intelligence department . The Home Army , after losing several operatives in reconnoitering the vicinity of the camp , including the Cichociemny Stefan Jasieński , decided that it lacked sufficient strength to capture the camp without Allied help . Pilecki ' s detailed report ( " Raport Witolda " – Witold ' s Report ) was sent to London , where the scale of Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz ( " During the first 3 years , at Auschwitz there perished 2 million people ; in the next 2 years — 3 million " ) was thought to be grossly exaggerated . The British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape . The Home Army in turn decided that it did not have enough force to storm the camp by itself . In 1944 , the Russian army , despite being within attacking distance of the camp , showed no interest in a joint effort with the Home Army and the ZOW to free the camp . Until he became involved in the Warsaw Uprising , Pilecki remained in charge of coordinated ZOW and AK activities , and provided what limited support he was able to offer to ZOW . On 23 February 1944 , Pilecki was promoted to cavalry captain ( " rotmistrz " ) and joined a secret anti - communist organization , NIE ( in Polish : " NO or NIEpodległość – INdependence " ) , formed as a secret organization within the Home Army with the goal of preparing resistance against a possible Soviet occupation . Warsaw Uprising . When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on 1 August 1944 , Pilecki volunteered for the Kedyw ' s Chrobry II group and fought in " Mazur " platoon , 1st company " Warszawianka " of National Armed Forces . At first , he fought in the northern city center as a simple private , without revealing his actual rank . Later , as many officers fell , he disclosed his true identity and accepted command . His forces held a fortified area called the " Great Bastion of Warsaw " . It was one of the most outlying partisan redoubts and caused considerable difficulties for German supply lines . The bastion held for two weeks in the face of constant attacks by German infantry and armor . On the capitulation of the uprising , Pilecki hid some weapons in a private apartment and went into captivity . He spent the rest of the war in German prisoner - of - war camps at Łambinowice and Murnau . Communist Poland . On 9 July 1945 , Pilecki was liberated from the POW camp , and soon afterwards he joined the 2nd Polish Corps , which was stationed in Italy , where he wrote a monograph on Auschwitz . As the relations between the Polish government in exile and the Polish Committee of National Liberation worsened , in September 1945 , Pilecki accepted orders from General Władysław Anders , commander of the 2nd Polish Corps ( main unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West ) to return to Poland under a false identity and gather intelligence to be sent to the government in exile . Pilecki returned to Poland in October 1945 , where he proceeded to organize his intelligence network . In early 1946 , the Polish government - in - exile decided that the postwar political situation afforded no hope of Poland ' s liberation and ordered all partisans still in the forests ( cursed soldiers ) either to return to their normal civilian lives or to escape to the West . In July 1946 , Pilecki was informed that his cover was blown and ordered to leave ; he declined . In April 1947 , he began collecting evidence on Soviet atrocities and on the prosecution of Poles ( mostly members of the Home Army and the 2nd Polish Corps ) and their executions or imprisonment in Soviet gulags . Arrest and execution . On 8 May 1947 , he was arrested by the Ministry of Public Security . Prior to trial , he was repeatedly tortured . The investigation on Pilecki ’ s activities was supervised by Colonel Roman Romkowski . He was interrogated by Col . Józef Różański , and lieutenants : S . Łyszkowski , W . Krawczyński , J . Kroszel , T . Słowianek , Eugeniusz Chimczak , and S . Alaborski – men who were especially famous for their savagery . But Pilecki sought to protect other prisoners and revealed no sensitive information . On 3 March 1948 , a show trial took place . Testimony against him was presented by a future Polish prime minister , Józef Cyrankiewicz , himself an Auschwitz survivor . Pilecki was accused of illegal crossing of the borders , use of forged documents , not enlisting with the military , carrying illegal arms , espionage for General Władysław Anders ( head of the military of the Polish Government - in - Exile ) , espionage for " foreign imperialism " ( thought to be British intelligence ) and preparing an assassination on several officials from the Ministry of Public Security of Poland . Pilecki denied the assassination charges , as well as espionage ( although he admitted to passing information to the II Polish Corps of whom he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws ) ; he pleaded guilty to the other charges . On 15 May , with three of his comrades , he was sentenced to death . Ten days later , on 25 May 1948 , Pilecki was executed at the Warsaw Mokotów Prison on " Rakowiecka " street , by Staff Sergeant Piotr Śmietański . Śmietański was nicknamed by prisoners the " Butcher of the Mokotow Prison " . Pilecki ' s place of burial has never been found but is thought to be somewhere within Powązki Cemetery . A symbolic gravestone was erected in his memory at Ostrowa Mazowiecka Cemetery after the fall of Communism in Poland . In 2012 , Powazki was partially excavated in an effort to find Pilecki ' s remains . Pilecki ' s conviction was part of a prosecution of Home Army members and others connected with the Polish Government - in - Exile in London . In 2003 , the prosecutor , Czesław Łapiński , and several others involved in the trial were charged with complicity in Pilecki ' s murder . Cyrankiewicz escaped similar proceedings , having died ; Łapiński died in 2004 , before the trial was concluded . Witold Pilecki and all others sentenced in the staged trial were rehabilitated on 1 October 1990 . In 1995 , he received posthumously the Order of Polonia Restituta and in 2006 he received the Order of the White Eagle , the highest Polish decoration . On September 6 , 2013 , he was posthumously promoted by the Minister of National Defence to the rank of polkovnik . Feature film . In September 2013 an announcement was released regarding the development of a feature film focused on Pilecki ’ s life , titled , " Operation Auschwitz " . Producers Samuel V . Franco and David Aaron Gray partnered to form Franco / Gray Entertainment , a fund specializing in developing film and television projects based on events of historical significance . " Operation Auschwitz " will be the company ’ s first project . The film will focus on Pilecki ’ s time at the notorious Nazi death camp as well as draw attention to the tragic betrayal that befell Captain Pilecki . The film will be based on primary source material in the public domain and will be set on location in Poland .