A biography of the Polish war-time hero Witold Pilecki has been promoted at the Polish Institute in Rome.

Entitled Il Volontario (The Volunteer), it is written by Marco Patricelli, a journalist of the daily Il Tempo. During the ceremony, he was decorated with the Bene Merito distinction awarded by the Polish Foreign Ministry.

The book had its commercial launch in January, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentratrion camp of Auschwitz.

Patricelli’s book is a gripping account of Pilecki’s exploits. In September 1940 he allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, where he organised a conspiracy among the prisoners with the idea of an insurrection in the camp and managed to send reports about the preparations for an extermination of  European Jews.

Patricelli told the Polish Press Agency that he learnt about Pilecki by chance, during a visit to Warsaw to collect materials about the Katyn crime in connection with the Wajda’s film Katyn.

“I saw a book about Pilecki in the Institute of National Remembrance. I started to read it and the same night I decided to write about him. I am happy that Italian readers have a chance to learn about Pilecki from my book,” Patricelli said.

Pilecki managed to escape from Auschwitz. He took part in the 1944 Warsaw Rising. After the war he joined the Second Corps in Italy and was sent by the Polish intelligence to Poland as a spy.

However, he was captured and executed by the communist authorities in 1948. In 1990, he was rehabilitated and in 2008 posthumously received the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction. (mk/jb)