Fifteen years after the end of World War II, William L. Shirer published his epic book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I purchased the book almost forty years ago through the “Book of the Month Club”⏤remember that organization? (Believe it or not, BOMC still exists.) I just finished reading it and there were many topics from ninety-years ago that pertain to today’s world. Today’s blog captures one of those subjects.
American author and journalist, William L. Shirer. Photo by anonymous (c. 1961). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.
William L. Shirer (1904−1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He was an eyewitness to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism during the 1930s. He started as a print journalist and worked for Universal Service until 1937 when he was fired from the William Randolph Hearst news company. Edward R. Murrow, European manager for CBS, immediately hired Shirer to open a bureau on the European continent. (Murrow worked out of the London office and wanted a correspondent located in Europe.) Shirer’s office was in Vienna but most of his reporting was done onsite from Paris, Berlin, and Rome. After Dunkirk, he personally followed behind the movement of German troops to report on the war. As the Nazis continued to pressure him in 1940 to report inaccurate information, Shirer suggested to Murrow that his tenure in Nazi territory was about over. Right about the same time, Shirer learned the Gestapo was developing a case against him for espionage which carried the death penalty. In December 1940, Shirer left Germany and did not return to Europe until 1945 when he covered the Nuremberg trials. Read More Diplomatic Lessons and Warning Signs,
This is one of those stories that is so hard to believe because we can’t imagine anyone in their right mind performing such bravery that defies all odds of surviving. Yet, this story of a Polish resistance fighter named Witold Pilecki is true. Lieutenant Pilecki volunteered in 1940 to be arrested and imprisoned in Auschwitz for the purpose of reporting on the activities inside the future extermination camp. After two and a half years in Auschwitz as inmate #4859, Pilecki escaped. His report, The Witold Report, was presented to the Allies in 1943 but they considered his eyewitness accounts as being exaggerated and no action was taken. The report was finally published in 2000 for public consumption.
Witold Pilecki. Photo by nieznany, kolor (before 1939). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.
Did You Know?
Did you know that Paris isn’t the only major city with therapy pets? Read Paris Therapy Pets here. Instead of rats, Rome has a problem with wild boars. It’s so bad that the Romans are afraid to let their children and pets go to the playgrounds. At first, they thought the wild pigs were kind of cute. But as Rome’s garbage piled up, the boars encroached closer to the center of the city every day. Herds of boars followed people and ultimately, forced them to remain in their homes. Believe it or not, medieval Paris had a similar problem. Next to criminal activity in the Middle Ages, the second highest cause of death in the City of Light ⏤ actually, the city was pretty dark back then ⏤ was being gored and eaten by a wild boar. Rome’s politicians think the solution has arrived in the form of wolves. The she-wolf is a natural predator of the wild boar and the wolves are following them into the inhabited areas of the city. Unfortunately, Rome is finding out the wolves aren’t afraid of humans. So, one problem is replaced by a second problem. Perhaps keeping the streets and properties clear of garbage might be a good start to a solution?
Oh, by the way, 2020 is the Chinese “Year of the Rat.” Enjoy those spring rolls! You might want to stick to the meatless version.
The role Polish citizens, soldiers, and resistance fighters played in fighting their Nazi occupiers has never been at the forefront of stories on World War II. We know Poland as the first country invaded by the Nazis as well as being the location of some of the most infamous extermination camps (e.g., Auschwitz). The role of the Einsatzengruppen or, Schutzstaffel (SS) mobile extermination squads in Poland is well documented as are the two major Warsaw uprisings in 1943 and 1944. However, information about the Polish Home Army and Polish resistance fighters was suppressed by the Soviets after the war and it wasn’t until after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 that stories such as Witold Pilecki were uncovered.
Witold Pilecki, a Polish hero and nationalist, partisan, army officer, and resistance fighter, is absolutely one of the bravest individuals I’ve run across while writing these blogs as well as my future book, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi Occupied Paris (1940-1944). British historian Norman Davies considers Pilecki to have few peers when it comes to Allied heroes.
Let’s Meet Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki (1901-1948) was born in Karelia, Russia to a family descended from an aristocratic and dedicated Polish nationalist who had his property confiscated by the Russian government in 1864. After seven years in exile in Siberia, Pilecki’s grandfather was forced to relocate to Karelia where he was forced to remain while working as a government employee. Two generations later, World War I and the Russian Revolution provided the opportunity for Witold to join Polish partisans and fight the Germans and Bolsheviks. Following the Polish-Soviet War in 1921, Pilecki joined the Polish Army Reserves.
The Pilecki estate. Photo by anonymous (c. 1930s).
By 1926, Pilecki became the head of the family estate and rebuilt the ancestral home which had been demolished during World War I. Five years later, he married Maria Ostrowska (1906-2002) and they had two children, Andrzej and Zosia. Pilecki became a community leader as well as an activist. He founded a cavalry school in 1932 and five years later, merged it with the Polish 19th Infantry Division. In August 1939, Pilecki became a cavalry platoon commander and took part in fierce fighting against the Germans a month later during the invasion. Soon after his platoon inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland as a part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. On 27 September, the Polish government surrendered to the Nazis but Pilecki and his men continued fighting as partisans and a month later, he founded the “Secret Polish Army” which became the first Polish underground resistance organization of the occupation.
The Pilecki family during happier times. Photo by anonymous (c. 1930s).Andrzej (left) and Zosia (right) Pilecki. Photo by anonymous (c. 1936).
Volunteering For Auschwitz and Escape
Pilecki came up with an idea in 1940 to have himself arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp located at Oświęcim. The purpose was to gather intelligence on the levels of inmate resistance within the camp. At that time, there was no information about the activities inside Auschwitz and it was thought to be a prison or internment camp. Auschwitz I – the main camp – was first populated in May 1940 while Auschwitz II or, Auschwitz-Berkenau was originally built in October 1941 to handle a rapidly growing prisoner population. After the Nazis agreed to the “Final Solution” in January 1942, Auschwitz-Berkenau was converted to a death or, extermination camp in March 1942.
Roundup of Jews and others in Warsaw in the autumn of 1940. This is likely the roundup in which Witold Pilecki was arrested. Photo by anonymous (c. 1940). Wikimedia Commons.
Pilecki’s plan was approved and he was given a new identity as “Tomasz Serafiński.” On 19 September 1940, Pilecki and 2,000 other Polish civilians were arrested in a Nazi roundup. He was immediately sent to Auschwitz and issued prisoner number “4859.” While inside the camp, Pilecki organized an underground resistance group called the Union of Military Organizations (ZOW). Its purpose was to improve morale, provide news from the outside, distribute extra food and clothing, and training to take over the camp in the event the Allies or the Polish Home Army attacked with the intent to liberate the camp. He even had a secret radio transmitter which forwarded intelligence information to London. However, by the spring of 1942, Pilecki’s intelligence reports to London began to include information about the exterminations.
Witold Pilecki’s Auschwitz prisoner mug shots. The triangle stitched to his jacket (lower right) was red denoting Pilecki’s status as a political prisoner. Photo by anonymous (c. 1941).
The Gestapo and SS started infiltrating the ZOW and executing its members. At that point, Pilecki decided to escape. On the evening of 26/27 April 1943, Pilecki and two others overpowered the guards in the camp’s bakery and successfully escaped. Within several days, Pilecki had managed to get to a unit of the Polish Home Army and on 25 August 1943, he reached Warsaw. Pilecki was debriefed by the Polish resistance and it was agreed that liberating Auschwitz could not be done without Allied support. He was ordered to prepare a report which could then be turned over to Allied governments in hopes it would persuade them to take action against Auschwitz.
The Auschwitz bakery – Pilecki and several other prisoners successfully escaped from this building. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).Witold Pilecki (center) and two other Auschwitz escapees standing in front of farmhouse used as a “safe” house after their escape. Photo by anonymous (c. summer 1943).
The Witold Report
The Raport Witolda or, Witold’s Report gave an estimate of 1.5 million people gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz (the estimated figure has been placed at 1.1 million). It also included eyewitness accounts of the gas chambers, Selektion otherwise known as the selection process of death or labor, and the sterilization experiments. Pilecki wrote that the three crematoria handled 8,000 bodies daily. To add credibility to the report, members of the Polish underground as well as ZOW members signed the document.
After it was completed, Witold’s Report was forwarded to the Allies. They deemed the information unreliable and exaggerated. Nothing was ever done. It was not until 2000 that Pilecki’s report was published and the first English version did not appear until 2012.
The Witold Report as addressed to the Governments of the United Nations on December 10, 1942. Photo by Government of the Republic of Poland (published 1942). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.
In the report, Pilecki wrote “We have strayed, my friends, we have strayed dreadfully . . . we are a whole level of hell worse than animals.”
Captain Roman
Captain Pilecki was part of the August 1944 Polish uprising in Warsaw. He fought the Nazis using the nom de guerre “Captain Roman.” After the surrender, Pilecki was captured by the Wehrmacht and sent to Germany and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-B as a POW. His last camp was Oflag VIIA in Bavaria which the Allies liberated on 28 April 1945.
Post-War and Execution
After the war, Pilecki returned to Soviet-occupied Poland where he developed a secret intelligence gathering organization. By July 1946, the Soviets had uncovered his various aliases and Pilecki was advised by his colleagues to leave Poland but unfortunately, he did not follow their advice.
Witold Pilecki (right) in Rome. Photo by anonymous (c. 1945).Witold Pilecki’s prisoner mug shots (Warsaw’s Mokotow Prison) after arrest by Soviets. Photo by anonymous (c. 1947). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.
Pilecki continued to collect evidence of Soviet atrocities in Poland and finally, on 8 May 1947, the Soviet secret police caught up to him. Pilecki was mercilessly tortured before being put on trial in March 1948. It was a “show” trial and Pilecki was charged with illegal border crossing, use of forged documents, carrying illegal weapons, not registering for the military, espionage, and planning the assassination of high Soviet officials. The prosecutor was a survivor of Auschwitz and would go on to become the Polish Prime Minister in the Soviet controlled satellite country.
Witold Pilecki in the witness stand at his trial in March 1948. Photo by Glos Ludu March 1948). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.Defendants sitting in the dock during their “show” trial. Witold Pilecki is in the second row sitting, first on the left. Photo by Glos Ludu (March 1948). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.Witold Pilecki (first row, left) sitting in the defendant’s box during his “show” trial. Photo by anonymous (c. March 1948). Institute of National Remembrance Archive. PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.
Pilecki was found guilty and sentenced to death. Ten days later, he was executed with a shot to the back of his head ⏤ a favorite method of execution used by the Nazis. His burial site remains a mystery to this day but is suspected to be a mass grave in Warsaw’s Powazki Cemetery.
Witold Pilecki death certificate from execution carried out by Piotr Śmietański in 1948. Photo by anonymous (c. 1948). PD- Polish Copyright Law Act. Wikimedia Commons.Maria Pilecki, Witold’s widow. Photo by Kociorro (May 1997). PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
Rehabilitation
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, Witold Pilecki was rehabilitated by the Polish government. He was awarded several of the highest Polish decorations.
Memorial to Witold Pilecki located in Warsaw. Photo by Cybulamy (29 August 2018). PD- Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Wikimedia Commons.
Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, said that Pilecki was “an example of inexplicable goodness at a time of inexplicable evil. There is ever-growing awareness of Poles helping Jews in the Holocaust, and how they paid with their lives, like Pilecki. We must honor these examples and follow them today in the parts of the world where there are horrors again.”
Andrzej (left) and Zosia (right) attending memorial service for their father, Witold Pilecki, at Powazki Cemetery. Photo by anonymous (c. 2012).
In the foreword of the English translated version of the Witold Report, Rabbi Schudrich writes “If heeded, Pilecki’s early warnings might have changed the course of history.”
The Auschwitz Volunteer is the first English version of the Witold Report. A Polish version was published in 2000.
What’s New With Sandy and Stew?
We’ve been extremely busy preparing for the series of lectures coming up the last three months of 2019 and the first four months of 2020. We’ve dusted off some old favorites: Marie Antoinette’s Last Ride, Rendezvous with the Gestapo, and Charles de Gaulle’s Myths & Legacies: The French Resistance. Some new presentations in 2020 will include Coco Chanel: Collaborator or Spy? and Jacques the Ripper and Other Paris Evils. For a complete list of upcoming presentations, please visit our web site (www.stewross.com).
Someone Is Commenting On Our Blogs
I received a comment on our blog, The Parisian Bluebeard is Guillotined. Actually, it wasn’t a real comment about the blog. It was someone trying to convince us to monetize our blog site using their services. I only bring this up because over the past five years, I’ve mentioned several times that we receive no compensation whatsoever for any recommendations including books, tour guides, or from the blog site. This will not change despite what others might feel is a good way to make money.
If there is a topic you’d like to see a blog written about, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I love hearing from you so keep those comments coming.
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“Informative and entertaining, Stew Ross’ newest work evokes a difficult and frightening time in the history of the City of Light. The detailed descriptions of sites such as the Vél’ d’hiv’ or Gestapo headquarters reminds us of the choices people made during those years.”
Cynthia Bisson, PhD, Professor of History, Belmont University, French Resistant Expert
Stewart Ross’ book is full of interesting documents and research, it put you well on the tracks of Marie Antoinette, Danton, Robespierre and many more, whether in Paris or in Versailles, extremely interesting and easy to read!
Raphaelle Crevet | Certified Tour Guide, Paris, France
