In September of 1940, Polish Army Officer Witold Pilecki entered Auschwitz as a prisoner to collect information on the camp's cruelty, according to his recently re-discovered report. After more than two and a half years of hard labor and torture, he accomplished his mission and escaped. While Pilecki's bravery has few rivals, his story has been almost completely unknown--until now. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Sunday, January 27, the Museum and the Polish Embassy invite you to the Museum to learn about Pilecki's incredible story. We know many members of our community have worked hard to raise awareness of Captain Pilecki's brave actions, and we hope you will be able to join us in DC on the 27th. Please register here: http://www.cvent.com/events/captain-witold-pilecki-and-the-resistance-in-auschwitz/event-summary-2e7f8153e10b4581be3a51a784e3bf8f.aspx
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Mary Narkiewicz Thank you for all you do, teach and share at US Holocaust Museum.
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Joyce Stange Langdon Did you know Aunt Helena's dad (a Pole)was in Auschwitz and later moved to another camp? It's so sad what they had to go through.\
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Susan Hinrichs Turner Now that is going above and beyond to serve your country! Poland must be very proud!
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pilecki.ipn.gov.pl
Rotamaster Pilecki
Joy Zamoyski Koch @Shauna Jones. Really? Please cite the sources that back up your outrageous claim.
Carol Dove Shauna Jones do you have anything to back up the slander you are stating?
Naomi Cathcart I'm sure he was a hero..however be careful as the release of the story of his heroism, may be a part of re~writing history [revisionism] and the previous comment is true. Most of what I have read and having been born in Poland and back to Poland many times certainly is true of the sentiment and action of many Poles. His bravery didn't make a scrap of difference to the systematic murder of the Jewish people.
Randall Boyer Let us praise the heroes who bravely sacrificed themselves against an ENORMITY of odds, to reveal the evil nature of a criminally genocidal regime!!
Roland Vincent Villars Thanks so much for posting this incredible act of heroism. Pilecki was the bravest of the brave Polish soldiers. I wish his name was widely known.
Mateusz Mickiewicz Long live Witold Pilecki. Chwala Witoldowi Pileckiemu. @Polina some scum in every country did collaborate and after the war if they ended up in a Communist country they were shot. Collaboration was the least common in Poland out of all countries in occupied Europe since Poland was a traditional enemy of Germany. It was more common in non Slavic countries or countries that weren't enemies prior to WWII.
Renata Lyall Montanye That was part of the anticommunist propaganda established post WWII by Europa wide collaborants and Nazis who had made it safely to the USA. It was not so much the economical system of communism they feared, since there was never a danger coming from it, but righteous justice to come for them out of the former Eastern Allied groups of the Soviet Union. Fear was also prevalent regarding proper identification via the personal data held by the Soviets such would be possible with.
Beverly Herard Jungvirt I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC several years ago- an incredibly moving experience to this day!
Karen Frenchko Collins Let us take a moment and pray for those who have gone before us through these very difficult times, and learn from what we know about their experiences to be more kind and gentle with each other. There is only one race on this earth...the human race.
Rafał Zaranek I have promised myself not to react to such an absurd and offensive statements like the one posted by Naomi Cathart but I can't be passive. The only ones who were systematic murdering Jews during the II WW were nazi Germans and there is no doubt aboud it, even not all Poles were 'good' and some of them were anti-semitic, and some of them also murdered Jews, they weren't the majority. In every nation You could find scoundrels. Our responsibility were not greater than the responsibility of US and UK who did nothing do save Jews that time, more, their policy was against saving Jews, because they didn't want Jewish refugees on their soil. Please read some publicatios of Jan Karski or about him, especially the one written by Haenel Yannick.
Pilecki and Karski were real heroes.
Christina D. Adams Quote: "His bravery didn't make a scrap of difference to the systematic murder of the Jewish people."
?? ?? I have a favorite quote that comes to mind, "I might not be a somebody to everyone in the world, but I can be the world to somebody." (Or something along those lines..) This man may not have saved all of the Jews from the horror of genocide, but no doubt he helped someone while he sacrificed himself and walked alongside them. He was most likely the world to someone living through that hell. He also escaped and lived to tell the story, spread the news of the atrocities, which in turn may have saved any number of people! If I look at what he did, recognize it as good and brave, and can't fathom having that kind of courage myself...then I think that makes him a hero. His willingness to do what he did...it may not have saved a great number of lives initially, although it may have once he got away to tell about it. But I bet it saved a lot of people from losing all hope in the human race at a time that surely felt like all humanity was gone and the world had turned its back on the Jewish people. Imagine! To meet a man who CHOSE to enter into their terrible circumstances, subject himself to their pain and torture, then risk his life to escape and go tell the truth! What hope that must have given some of these people suffering and feeling so abandoned and forsaken, which may have been at times more devastating than the physical torture. A little piece of love in a darkened world of hate. He may not have been something to everyone, but I would bet he was everything to some. I thank God for these people. I pray he was/is blessed beyond measure in his life.
Pawel Pablus Rzepecki I love when people from other parts of the world, especially USA, tell us Polish, how antisemitic we were (and we still are); love, when those people remind us Jedwabne. Yes, we were antisemitic in 30s, like whole Europe was. I just love this mentor-like tone to show us, where we belong to...just right next to Nazis. Yes, some drunk animals did horrible things in Jedwabne. I agree with that. I just want to ask: where the hell YOU HAVE BEEN those days, where Warsaw ghetto was cleared out. Where you have been to show us how to survive 6 years of Nazis occupation and stay human? Well...I know, where you`ve been..Somewhere between Maginott Line and Dunkirk. Safe and hide from gas, bullets, bombs, starvation, concentrate-lagers, anonymous graves. If you are so bloody smart - go to Auschwitz and try to find name of your grandad there...My grandad escaped twice form transport to Auschwitz and save God knows how many of Jewish souls. He has never felt hero - he did what he must. As we - Polish - did due this war. Btw. you can find canny loads of documents about SS-waffens formed from Dutch, Belgian, Russian, Ukrainians...you will not find any with Polish.
Branka Jovic Unfortunately there are many stories of bravery that will never be told.
Marlene Bellis From the Talmud "whoever preserves the life of a single human being ... it is as if he had preserved an entire world"
Pawel Pablus Rzepecki I'm finding out really hilarious when Russian tries to say how bad Polish were during the 2 WW. Seriously?! Honest - SERIOUSLY?!
Betsey Guhin-Hedrick i would love to hear his story....can not be there but hope there will be another way to take it in!?!
Małgorzata Borzeszkowska His storu is well known in Poland. If it comes to Russians, they might not have been the exact executors but it was their dominance and power after IIWW which suppored this outragous and cruel communist system in Poland which killed Pliecki and erased him from textbooks for many years. We still don't know where he was buried, his grave hasn't been found yet. And again, I absolutely agree with Pawel: it's easy to judge the Poles from your safe position. Think how many people will jump into the water to save somebody's life? 2/3 out of 10? They only risk their own life, right? Not lives of their kids or spouses, who were to be killed - that was the punishment in Poland for helping Jews. My students say: There are people and stools (doesn't matter how silly it sounds). Some of people will never get rid of a stool in them . But I could never say: for sure I'll be a daredevil, I've got courage to take a risk and force my family to take a risk too. Pilecki did it. And was rewarded by the communist system. Lawless death. But his story was also forgotten by the West which didn't want to remember their own faults.
Julie Marcus One person can impact the lives of others. This is another story about one individual who made a difference during a horrendous time in history.
Dieter Buse Courageous person, but the story has long been known, widespread since 1970 s, but like Iraq weapons of mass destruction, beliefs and ignorance triumph over knowledge
Eris Riley The best bit of history, is no one knows the truth.
Dennis Scranton Miles City friend Kubic, Polish was sentenced twice to execution, met his future wife in the prison, married and both headed for here once the war was over and they were liberated. A few years ago I delighted him by downloading Warsaw papers and printing out for him Great guy and told me many stories.
Monaco Glynn Edward Reid, would be interested in citations for this story. The link you posted doesn't seem to work. Do you have any others?
Volunteer For Auschwitz Concentration Camp - The story of Captain Witold Pilecki...
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Jozy Spinelli i would love to go back to Washington D.C. Holicost Museum & hear that story!
Robin Huff I want very much to visit the Museum some day. I have read a great deal about the Holocaust, but have to stop for a while after 6-8 months of in-
depth study, otherwise I just
become too depressed.
I think that honoring this man, a hero just like Rudolph Vrba and
the man who escaped with him
(I am so sorry I can't remember his name). They were true heros
who also escaped from Auschwitz and got extremely accurate, detailed reports about Auschwitz to the "authorities", in vain attempts to get help. The reports reached Jewish leaders, the Pose, Great Britain and the United States.
There is more that enough blame to go around, from outright collaborators to bystanders. But instead of arguing who is the most to blame and attempt to acquit our particular group or country of guilt, we must honor the Vrba's and Pilecki's. Surviving in Auschwitz in the 40's? That in itself was an amazing feat. The camp was DESIGNED for people to survive only 6-8 weeks. And then to escape and get this information out? Amazing. And a word that really applies here, heroic.
Since I can't attend the presentation at the Museum, I'm definitely going to research this guy. I want to know more.
God bless all those who still survive, and thank them for fulfilling the moral need to bear witness to what happened in those awful years.
Edward Reid Pawel - research who actually did the execution of Rot. Pilecki though.
Carol Dove Historically speaking the Holocaust Museum shall not be complete until it tell the full story of Poland. While it is a crime to deny the Holocaust for many it still is not a crime to leave out historical facts of non Jewish victims.
Carol Dove Ask yourself why it was a crime punishable by death to anyone caught helping a Jewish person only in Poland?
United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumDear all: we are overwhelmed by and appreciative of the amount of response that this event has received. We invite all who are interested to attend the event on January 27th at the Museum to learn more about Witold Pilecki, and hope to see many of you there (register here: http://bit.ly/WdM8hN
).
As the dialogue in these comments progresses, we would like to remind our community of the guidelines for posting and commenting on our page (http://www.facebook.com/holocaustmuseum/app_317558241678520). We ask that you be courteous in your dialogue, that you not attack groups in sweeping generalizations, and that you stay on topic to the conversation at hand. Any comments that are historically inaccurate or misleading will be deleted. Comments that have attacked the Polish community as being universally antisemitic or that equate the Jewish community with NKVD have been removed from this thread. Painting with broad strokes and seeking to provide simple answers to complex issues does not help our community to have a better understanding of this tragic era in human history, but courteous dialogue that seeks out sources and facts enables us to learn from, and with, one another.
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff TheaterUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SWWashington, District of Columbia 20024
Michael Crabtree I have nothing but love for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I went on a trip there my senior year of highschool. Some reason I heldon to the little passport they handed me as I walked in. This passport would one day bring me to convert to Judaism. They were big parts in my ever groing love for the Jewish people. Thanks
. His name was Piotr Smietanski.
en.wikipedia.org
Witold Pilecki (13 May 1901 – 25 May 1948; Polish pronunciation: [ˈvitɔlt piˈlɛt...
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