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Witold's Report, also known as Pilecki's Report, is a report about the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
written in 1943 by Witold Pilecki, a Polish military officer and member of the Polish resistance. Pilecki volunteered in 1940 to be imprisoned in
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
to organize a resistance movement and send out information about the camp. He escaped from Auschwitz in April 1943. His was the first comprehensive record of a
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
death camp to be obtained by the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
. The report includes details about the
gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History Donatie ...
s, "''
Selektion "Selection" (German language, German: ') is the name given to the process of designating inmates either for murder or Forced labour under German rule during World War II, forced labor at a Nazi concentration camps, Nazi concentration camp. The ...
''", and sterilization experiments. It states that there were three crematoria in
Auschwitz II Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
capable of cremating 8,000 people daily. Pilecki's Report preceded and complemented the '' Auschwitz Protocols'', compiled from late 1943, which warned about the mass murder and other atrocities taking place at the camp. The ''Auschwitz Protocols'' comprise the '' Polish Major's Report'' by Jerzy Tabeau, who escaped with Roman Cieliczko on 19 November 1943 and compiled a report between December 1943 and January 1944; the Vrba-Wetzler report; and the Rosin- Mordowicz report.


Background

On 9 November 1939, after the Polish Army had been defeated in the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, together with his commander, Major Jan Włodarkiewicz, founded the Secret Polish Army (''Tajna Armia Polska'', ''TAP''). In 1940 Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
, gather intelligence on the camp, and organize inmate resistance. At the time, little was known about how the Germans ran the camp, which appeared to operate as an internment, or large prison, camp. Pilecki's superiors approved his plan and provided him with a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński".Lewis, Jon E. (1999), The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, Carroll & Graf Publishers, , p. 390 On 19 September 1940 he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup ('' łapanka'') and was caught by the Germans, along with some 2,000 innocent civilians. After two days' detention in the Light Horse Guards Barracks, where prisoners suffered beatings with rubber batons, Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and was assigned inmate number 4859.


Auschwitz

Inside the camp Pilecki organized an underground military organization ( ZwiÄ…zek Organizacji Wojskowej, ''ZOW''), connected with other smaller underground organizations. Pilecki planned a general uprising in
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
and hoped that the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp (most likely the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, based in Great Britain), and that the
Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier ZwiÄ…zek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
would organize an assault on the camp from outside. In 1943, the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, hoping to personally convince
Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier ZwiÄ…zek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
leaders about his idea of the uprising in Auschwitz. On the night of April 26/27, 1943, Pilecki made a daring escape from the camp, but the Home Army did not accept his insurgency plan, as the Allies considered his reports about the Holocaust exaggerated.


Report

ZOW's intelligence network inside the camp started to send regular reports to the Home Army starting in October 1940. Beginning in November 1940, the first information about
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
occurring in the camp was sent via ZOW to the Home Army headquarters in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
. From March 1941 onwards Witold Pilecki's messages were forwarded to the
Polish government in exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovere ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and, through it, to the British government and other Allied governments. These reports informed the Allies about the unfolding
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
and were the principal source of intelligence on
Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
for the Western Allies. On June 20, 1942, four Poles, , Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart, made a daring escape from Auschwitz. Dressed as members of the
SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; or 'SS Death's Head Battalions') was a major branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary (SS) organisation. It was responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps and extermination camps of Nazi Germany ...
, fully armed and in an SS staff car, they drove out the main gate in a stolen automobile, a
Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd lar ...
220 belonging to
Rudolf Höss Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss (also Höß, Hoeß, or Hoess; ; 25 November 1901 – 16 April 1947) was a German SS officer and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II, he w ...
. Jaster, a member of ZOW, carried with him a detailed report about conditions in the camp, written by Pilecki. The Germans never recaptured any of them. After his own daring escape from Auschwitz on April 27, 1943, Pilecki wrote ''Raport W''. The report was signed by other members of the Polish underground who worked with ZOW: Aleksander Wielopolski, Stefan Bielecki, Antoni Woźniak, Aleksander Paliński, Ferdynand Trojnicki, Eleonora Ostrowska and Stefan Miłkowski, and it included a section called "Teren S" which contained a list of ZOW members. Later, after his release from the German
prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...
at Murnau in 1945, Pilecki compiled a version of the report that was over 100 pages long. The first publication of Witold's Report took place in 2000, 55 years after the war, after it was reconstructed and published by Adam Cyra in his book ''Rotmistrz Pilecki. Ochotnik do Auschwitz''. Additional documents were discovered in 2009. An English translation was published in 2012 under the title '' The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery''.


See also

* Raczyński's Note * The Polish White Book * The Black Book of Poland * Auschwitz Protocols * The Volunteer (book) * Vrba–Wetzler report *
Karski's reports Karski's reports were a series of reports attributed to Jan Karski, an investigator working for the Polish government-in-exile during World War II, describing the situation in occupied Poland. They were some of the first documents on the Holocau ...
* Pilecki Institute * Bibliography of the Holocaust § Primary Sources


References


Further reading

# Adam Cyra, ''Ochotnik do Auschwitz. Witold Pilecki 1901–1948'', , Chrześcijańskie Stowarzyszenie Rodzin Oświęcimskich, Oświęcim 2000 # Cyra, Adam ''Spadochroniarz Urban'' aratrooper Urban Oświęcim 2005. # Cyra, Adam and Wiesław Jan Wysocki, ''Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki'', Oficyna Wydawnicza VOLUMEN, 1997. # Jacek Pawłowicz, ''Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki 1901–1948'', 2008, . # Foot, Michael Richard Daniell (2003), Six Faces of Courage. Secret agents against Nazi tyranny. Witold Pilecki, Leo Cooper, # Piekarski, Konstanty R. (1990), Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Dundurn Press Ltd., # Tchorek, Kamil (March 12, 2009), Double life of Witold Pilecki, the Auschwitz volunteer who uncovered Holocaust secrets, London: The Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5891132.ece, retrieved March 16, 2009 # Wyman, David S.; Garlinski, Jozef (December 1976), "Review: Jozef Garlinski. Fighting Auschwitz: The Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp", American Historical Review (American Historical Association) 81 (5): 1168–1169, , #Ciesielski E., ''Wspomnienia Oświęcimskie'' uschwitz Memoirs Kraków, 1968 # Garlinski, Jozef, ''Fighting Auschwitz: the Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp'', Fawcett, 1975, , reprinted by Time Life Education, 1993. #Gawron, W. ''Ochotnik do Oświęcimia'' olunteer for Auschwitz Calvarianum, Auschwitz Museum, 1992 #Patricelli, M. "Il volontario" he Volunteer Laterza 2010, . #Wysocki, Wiesław Jan. ''
Rotmistrz Rittmaster () is usually a commissioned officer military rank used in a few armies, usually equivalent to Captain. Historically it has been used in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, and some other countries. A is typically in charge of a s ...
Pilecki'', Pomost, 1994. #Kon Piekarski "Escaping Hell: The Story of a Polish Underground Officer in Auschwitz and Buchenwald", Dundurn Press Ltd., 1989, ,


External links

* Staff correspondent (March 5, 1948)
Polish Left-Wing Relations: No Fusion as Yet
London: The Times, pp. 3, retrieved March 12, 2009 * *


Witold Pilecki's report from Auschwitz
(rtf)

(HTML)

* Andrzej M. Kobos

Zwoje 5 (9), 1998
Biography of Witold Pilecki on Diapozytyw
*Józef Garlinski

2003
Episodes from Auschwitz: Witolds Report.
Witold Pilecki's time at Auschwitz and post-War fate presented as a graphic history.
Meet The Man Who Sneaked Into Auschwitz.
*{{in lang, en}
Witold’s Report from Auschwitz
Download (PDF) from http://rtmpilecki.eu/raport-3/ , 2018 Government reports 1943 in Poland Holocaust historical documents Auschwitz concentration camp 1943 documents