Skip to content
218,296 profiles ranked

Witold Pilecki

Polish underground resistance soldier, World War II concentration camp resistance leader (1901-1948) · Poland · On the map · Died at 47

Tagged

He volunteered for Auschwitz. In 1940, Pilecki let the Germans arrest him so he could be sent inside the camp, where he built a resistance network of hundreds, smuggled out intelligence on the machinery of extermination, and escaped three years later to keep fighting.

Witold Pilecki is read about 1,099 times a day, in 46 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 1 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?
Compare

A life in dates

2006Order of the White EagleAward1995Commander of the Order of Polonia RestitutaAward1984Order of the Star of PerseveranceAward1948Died25 May 19481947“If Józef Cyrankiewicz finds out I'm here, I'm dead.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

“The game which I was now playing in Auschwitz was dangerous.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

“I was not a[n intelligence] resident, only a Polish officer. I carried out my orders until arrested.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

“So they didn't let anybody else off. I can't live anymore, they've done me. Auschwitz was just a child's play.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

“I've been trying to live my life so that in the hour of my death I would rather feel joy, than fear.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

“During the first 3 years at Auschwitz, 2 million people were killed. Over the next 2 years, 3 Million.”In their words14 May 1947*The last stanza of the poem Dla Pana Pułkownika Różańskiego ("For Colonel Różański"), written by Pilecki on 14 May 1947 to the supervisor

1938Silver Cross of MeritAward1928Decade of Independence RegainedAward1901Born13 May 1901

People around Witold

Family

Witold Pilecki

Partners

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong. A marriage is drawn as ended only where its end is recorded, so a spouse drawn here may be a former one.

Correct this family

Also in Deutsch

Media & music

In their own words 1

,
Witold Pilecki
,
One statement

  1. I found a joy in myself, coming from the awareness that I want to fight.

    *After the announcement of the death sentence., Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Order of the White Eagle2006
Commander of the Order of Polonia Restituta1995
Order of the Star of Perseverance1984
Silver Cross of Merit1938
Decade of Independence Regained1928
Cross of Valour
Auschwitz Cross
Cross of Merit of the Army of Central Lithuania
Commemorative Medal for the War of 1918-1921
Warsaw Uprising Cross

About this person

Pilecki came up through Polish scouting and militia in the aftermath of World War I, fought in the Polish-Soviet War, and in 1939 saw his country overrun by Germany and the Soviets. He co-founded the Secret Polish Army resistance, then orchestrated his own capture in 1940 to infiltrate Auschwitz. Inside, he organized inmates and compiled reports on German atrocities that reached the Home Army and the Allies. He broke out in April 1943, fought in the Warsaw Uprising the following year, and was interned as a POW. After the war, loyal to the London government-in-exile, he returned to communist Poland in 1945 to report on conditions - first compiling Witold's Report, a detailed record of what he'd seen. In 1947 the secret police arrested him for serving "foreign imperialism." He was tortured, tried, and executed in Warsaw in 1948 at forty-seven. The communist state buried his story for decades.

Country
Poland
Type
Other
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1901 to 1948 · aged 47

Where to find them

IMDb