The Auschwitz Volunteer

Pilecki, Captain Witold (pronounced VEE-told pee-LETS-kee)Captain Witold Pilecki (1901¿1948), a cavalry officer in the Polish Army, was one of the founders of a resistance organization in German-occupied Poland during World War II that quickly evolved into the Polish Underground Army.Pilecki is the only man known to have volunteered to get himself arrested and sent to Auschwitz as a prisoner. His secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among the inmates with the ultimate goal of liberating the camp.Barely surviving nearly three years of starvation, disease and brutality, Pilecki accomplished his mission before escaping in April 1943. Soon after his escape, Pilecki wrote two relatively brief reports for his Polish Army superiors about his time in Auschwitz. In 1945 he wrote his most comprehensive report of more than one hundred single-spaced typed foolscap pages¿it is this last, most comprehensive, report which Aquila Polonica is publishing in English for the first time. Pilecki continued his work in the High Command of the Polish Underground Army, fought in the Warsaw Uprising (August¿October 1944), was taken prisoner by the Germans, and ended the war in a German POW camp.In late 1945, Pilecki, who was married and the father of two children, volunteered to return undercover to Poland where conditions were chaotic at war's end as the communists were asserting control. His mission this time: liaise with anti-communist resistance organizations and report back on conditions within the country. He was captured by the postwar Polish communist regime, tortured and executed in 1948 as a traitor and a ¿Western spy.¿ Pilecki's name was erased from Polish history until the collapse of communism in 1989.Pilecki was fully exonerated posthumously in the 1990s. Today he is regarded as one of Poland's heroes.Translator BioGarlinski, JarekTranslator Jarek Garlinski was born in London, England, and grew up bilingual in English and Polish. His father was noted historian and author Jozef Garlinski, a former prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau. His mother Eileen Short-Garlinska was one of only a few Britons who spent World War II in Warsaw. Both parents served in the Polish Underground Army during the war.Educated at the University of Nottingham, the University of Grenoble, and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, Garlinski is fluent in English, French, Polish and Russian, with a distinguished career in education.Garlinski is a member of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America and has been decorated by the Polish Ministry of Defense and the Knights of Malta for services to Polish culture.He has translated numerous books of Polish literature and history, specializing in the World War II era.

Soldier, Patriot¿Husband, Father¿HeroCaptain Witold Pilecki¿the only man who volunteered to be captured and imprisoned in Auschwitz to bring out the story of the camp.September 1940. With calm deliberation, Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki walked into a Nazi German street round-up in Warsaw¿and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859.Pilecki had volunteered for a potentially suicidal secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among the prisoners.Barely surviving nearly three years of hunger, disease and brutality, Pilecki accomplished his mission before escaping in April 1943.His clandestine intelligence reports from Auschwitz, received by the Allies beginning in 1941, were among the earliest, including the full horrors of daily life inside the camp, the killing of Soviet soldiers taken as prisoners of war, the building of the gas chambers and mass extermination of the Jews brought to the camp.Pilecki¿s most comprehensive report on Auschwitz, written for his Polish Army superiors in 1945, is being published here in English for the first time.¿A shining example of heroism that transcends religion, race and time.¿¿ Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland

CONTENTSIntroduction by Norman Davies ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. xiForeword by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland ¿¿¿¿. xvTranslator's Introductory Note ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ xixPublisher's Note ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.. xxiiiSelected Highlights from Pilecki's 1945 Report ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. xxixList of Maps ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. xxxiHistorical HorizonCaptain Witold Pilecki: The Report, the Mission, the Man ¿¿¿. xxxiiiCaptain Pilecki's Covering Letterto Major General Tadeusz Pelczynski ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 1Captain Witold Pilecki's 1945 Auschwitz Report ¿¿.¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. 5Appendices1 Glossary of English, German and Polish Termsand Acronyms ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...3352 German-Language Positions and Ranks at AuschwitzMentioned by Pilecki ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.3433 Index of People and Places Referred to by Pileckiwith Either a Code Number or Letter ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.¿...¿3454 Chronology of Pilecki's 1945 Report ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿...¿¿355Index ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.¿¿¿¿¿..365Discussion Questions ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿..397LIST OF MAPSEurope 1939 ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿... viPoland¿September 1939 ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿.. ixOccupied Poland 1939¿1941 ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ xAuschwitz and Environs¿1944 ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. 9KL Auschwitz 1 ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿. 10Pilecki's Escape Route from Auschwitz ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿300