Pilecki Enters Auschwitz Willingly: Spy's Mission
Witold Pilecki walked into a German street roundup in Warsaw on September 19, 1940, carrying false papers — voluntarily. He wanted to get inside Auschwitz. For two and a half years he organized an underground resistance within the camp, smuggling intelligence reports out through bribed guards and escaped prisoners. His reports were some of the first detailed evidence of the Holocaust to reach the Allies. He escaped in 1943. The Polish communist government arrested him after the war, tortured him, and executed him in 1948. He asked to be shot in the chest, not the back.
September 19, 1940
86 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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