Polish members of the European Parliament have launched a campaign to establish the European Day of the Heroes Who Fought with Totalitarianism. In their view, Poland’s Witold Pilecki should be the day’s patron.
Michal Kubicki reports
Witold Pilecki was 18 when he took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. He was twice awarded the Cross of Valour for gallantry. Soon after the Second World War broke out, he co-founded the Secret Polish Army, which was one of the first underground organizations in Poland, later incorporated into the Home Army, the largest resistance force in Poland. In 1940 Pilecki went ahead with a plan which seemed almost suicidal.
Polish historian Jan Ciechanowski on the line from London: ‘In September 1940 Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz. He was perhaps the only person who voluntarily allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans hoping that he would be sent to Auschwitz. When he arrived to Auschwitz, he started to organize a conspiracy among the prisoners with the idea of an insurrection in the camp. Secondly, the Germans already in 1941 decided to murder all European Jews, including Polish Jews and Pilecki was one of those who managed to send reports from Auschwitz indicating that such an action was being prepared by the Germans.’
In 1943 Pilecki and two other inmates escaped from Auschwitz and having reached Warsaw he joined the Home Army’s intelligence department and formed a secret organization within the Home Army to prepare resistance against a possible Soviet occupation. He fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the end of the war he went to 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.
Polish MEPs think that May 25, Pilecki’s death anniversary, should be established as the Day of the Heroes of the Struggle with Totalitarianism Historian Wojciech Roszkowski explains why: ‘He suffered from both totalitarian regimes. He’s a victim of the communist dictatorship, so he’s a symbolic figure for this reason. He’s a victim of two major oppressive regimes of the twentieth century.’
Polish MEPs have launched a campaign to honour Pilecki. The English-language version of Pilecki’s Auschwitz Report has been distributed among MEPs. Wojciech Roszkowski again: ‘Pilecki was publicized after the war as one of the heroes of underground struggle during World War Two. There was a book published in Britain [Michael Foot’s Six Faces of Courage] about him as one of the figures of underground resistance, despite the fact that Polish war-time history is not very well known Pilecki is relatively well known. Now we’re launching a massive campaign to make the anniversary of Pilecki’s death on 25 May a celebration of the struggle against totalitarianism so probably for the mass audience he’s too little known but I think we should make every effort to make him known to the general public.’
Witold Pilecki’s burial place has never been found. In 1990, he was rehabilitated and last year received posthumously the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction.
The 60th anniversary of his death earlier this year was marked by a series of commemorative events. A special resolution about him was adopted by the Polish Senate.