I was in Auschwitz for two years and seven months. I ran a “job” here. Lately, I have not been given further instructions. The Germans have now deported the best material I worked with. It would be necessary to start from the beginning. I think that further sitting here makes no sense. And that's why I'm leaving. Captain [Stanislaw Machowski] looked puzzled at Pilecki and replied: Well, yes. I understand you, sir, but is it possible when you want to come and when you want to leave Oświęcim?" "Yes." - replied Pilecki. What was the backstage of the Rotmistrz's stay in Auschwitz and what can we find in the Report he wrote? We invite you to watch today’s film. The character of Witold Pilecki needs no special introduction. Born on May 13, 1901, a participant in the defensive war and later a soldier of the Polish Underground State - he did great things in his life. One of them was to volunteer for Auschwitz to describe the conditions in the camp and to form an underground organization on the spot. The result of his stay in the camp was the organization of a special network called the Union of Military Organization, the preparation of reports for the Warsaw Command, as well as the creation of the Report, which was completed by the Rotmistrz in 1945. This remarkable testimony allows us to learn not only the history of Auschwitz and the fate of the prisoners imprisoned there, but also to trace the expansion of the entire extermination machine created by the Germans. The motives behind Pilecki's assignment to such a dangerous task remain debatable to this day. Some scholars believe that actually getting to Auschwitz was the result of the initiative of Pilecki himself still others believe that he fell victim to games within the Warsaw underground, which wanted to get rid of the unruly member. Regardless of the above quibbles - the final approval belonged to Pilecki, and it was he who made the decision to participate in this dangerous action, for which it was necessary to prepare accordingly - and not only mentally. Pilecki could not find himself in the camp under his own name, which, after all, would have been instantly linked to his military career, which in itself would have ended his mission very quickly. To protect himself from such a fate, Pilecki took on a new identity in the name of Tomasz Serafiński. This task was made possible by an acquaintance of the doctor, with whom a card in the aforementioned name was left in 1939. Recognizing that its owner had probably died, it was decided to use the personalities that had been placed on Pilecki's new underground kennkarte. Equipped with new documents, Pilecki looked for an opportunity to get into the camp. He decided that the best way would be a roundup, as part of which the Germans deported Poles for labor to the Reich or concentration camps. A convenient moment to turn himself in to the Germans came on September 19, 1940. On that day, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., the occupiers conducted a raid in Warsaw. During its course, Pilecki was in the apartment of his cousin Eleonora Ostrowska at 40 Wojska Polskiego Avenue, which is commemorated today by an appropriate memorial plaque. Sensing that here was a convenient moment to carry out his plan - he left Ostrowska's apartment and went out into the street, where he was stopped and questioned by the Germans at the corner of Felińskiego Street and Wojska Polskiego Avenue. The captured Poles were divided into fives by the Germans and taken to Wilson Square. There they were loaded into trucks and taken to the Szwoleżer barracks, where they remained until September 20. A total of about 1,800 people were captured at that time. On September 21, the Poles were taken to the Western Railway Station and the transport was organized. On the night of September 22, it arrived at its destination, a town called Auschwitz that still says little, where a wave of violence greeted the Poles. “We were blinded by headlights aimed at the interior - Pilecki remembered - Heraus! Rrraus! Rrraus!... There were shrieks and flashes of ss-mannas on the shoulders, backs, heads of colleagues. It was necessary to quickly find ourselves outside [...] pushed, beaten, kicked, barked at with dogs, we suddenly found ourselves in conditions I doubt any of us had ever been in.” Indeed, the Auschwitz camp turned out to be simply a place of execution for many arriving Poles. This is because many of them could not endure the abysmal conditions and murderous labor, and still others were simply murdered by the Germans. Newly arrived prisoners, who were referred to in camp jargon as "zugangs," were greeted on the one hand with the assurance that they could live for a maximum of six weeks, while on the other hand they were deprived of any sense of individuality - above all, they were stripped of their personal belongings, had their hair cut, were assigned a camp striped uniform and were assigned a number. Witold Pilecki was given the number 4859. Inherent in each prisoner's life became the camp schedule, which began at 4:20 a.m. in summer and an hour later in winter. All to the accompaniment of screams, beatings and a race to the toilets, where few had time to have their needs met. The gong for the morning roll call was struck at 5:45. At 6 o'clock everyone stood in aligned ranks. At roll call everyone had to be there. If there were accidents that someone was missing [...] - then they were searched for, found, dragged to the square and almost always killed in public. After roll call, commandos were formed and set out to work. This was an activity that instantly verified who had even a minimal chance of surviving in Auschwitz. The least likely, Pilecki remembered, were the intelligentsia - and not even because they were incapable of work, but because they could not let go of their pre-war habits and often required other prisoners to provide for them, as if bourgeois norms applied behind the wires of Auschwitz. Left to their own resources - they were most often killed. As Pilecki remembered: all those who were unfit for work or no longer had the strength to run with a wheelbarrow were beaten, and upon collapsing with the wheelbarrow, killed with a rod and shoe. So it was understood very quickly that Auschwitz was a place quite unlike anything else in the world. Whoever was unable to accept the new rules - died - if not as a result of murderous labor, then due to the brutality of the SS men. It is thanks to Pilecki, among others, that we know how the elaborate system of punishments, which the author of the Report divided into four categories, was presented with details: The lightest punishment was beating on a stool. This was done in public [...] There was prepared a , "execution furniture" - a stool with leg and hand grips, on both sides. [...] They were beaten with bullwhips or simply with a heavy cane [...] Sometimes they received 50 hits, sometimes 75. On one occasion, with a penalty of 100 hits, around the 90th hit - some miser - ended his life. The second punishment was - a bunker. [...] Squeezed, helping with a stick four prisoners [...] and closing with bars were left until morning. It would seem impossible, but there are witnesses to this and are still alive today who served the punishment of , "stehebunker" in the company of colleagues, squeezed [...] in the number of eight people". The third punishment was the usual post from the Austrian borrowed punishment methods. Except that those hanging by their hands tethered at the back were occasionally rocked by the ss-man supervising, just for fun. Then the joints crackled, the ropes cut into the flesh. [...] Well, and the fourth, the highest punishment was - execution - death quickly inflicted, how much more humane - how much more by the tortured long - truly desired. The death penalty could be received for, among other things, stealing food or possessing illegal items. Death, up to a certain point, was also punished to prisoners in the form of reprisals for someone's escape. Those sentenced to death were selected, among others, at roll calls, one of which was particularly memorable for Pilecki. As he recalled: "Once upon a time it happened that when a young prisoner was chosen, an old man - a priest - stepped forward from the ranks and asked the camp commandant to pick him and exempt the other young man from punishment. The moment was strong - the block was petrified from the impression. The commandant agreed. The priest-hero went to his death, and that prisoner returned to the ranks. The prisoner in question was Franciszek Gajowniczek, and that priest was none other than Father Maximilian Kolbe. Thanks to Father Kolbe's dedication, Gajowniczek had a chance to survive and return to his family - he died in 1995. Father Kolbe, on the other hand, was locked in a cell in Block 11, and after two weeks, on August 14, 1941, he was killed by an injection of phenol in his heart. The executions of prisoners, Pilecki said, were, incidentally, carried out in the courtyard of the block of flats in whose basement Father Kolbe was murdered. It was there that the so-called Wall of Death was located, at which today ceremonies are held to commemorate the suffering and deaths of the German camp's prisoners. Although the Auschwitz camp is associated as one of the most monstrous places in the history of the world - some semblance of normalcy functioned here. One of these was sports, and boxing was a particularly exciting sport. As Pilecki remembered: In boxing, in spite of the difference in food-work, the Poles always beat the caps-Germans [...] It was the only opportunity, to beat a cap in the mouth, which the häftling-Polish did with all satisfaction, to the general cheers of the spectators. There were several boxers in our country who were quite good. I knew from my work in the organization closer only the number 21 [Tadeusz Pietrzykowski], who always masterfully came out of the meeting and smacked some bastard in the mouth. Another peculiar phenomenon at Auschwitz was the camp orchestra, whose first, still informal performance took place on January 6, 1941. As Pilecki remembered: “The camp commandant liked music - the result was an orchestra made of good musicians [...] Working in the orchestra was a good "job" so anyone who had an instrument at home brought it in quickly and signed up for the orchestra, which under the baton of , "Franz" [...] played the most varied songs. The orchestra really was on a good level. And it was the pride of the camp commandant. [...] The orchestra played for us four times a day. In the morning - when we left for work, when we returned for lunch, for work after lunch and when returning for the evening roll call. [...] To the sound of some lively marches, played at a fast tempo, which rather gave the impression of a polka or an ombre - not a march, the beaten, weakling figures of prisoners exhausted by work returned.” The first bandmaster of the orchestra was the aforementioned Franz, or Franciszek Nierychlo. The musicians gave concerts not only for the prisoners, but also for the camp staff and the commandant himself. Initially, it consisted of a few musicians, eventually reaching about 120 members. This allowed for the emergence of several ensembles, such as a symphonic, dance and even jazz band. The vast majority were Poles, although among the orchestra one could also find Czechs, Russians, Germans, Roma and, from 1944, even Jews. Leaving aside the murderous labor, the system of punishment and death that threatened every prisoner - there was another thing in Auschwitz that was particularly hard on the body. That thing was vermin, or to be more precise, lice. Pilecki recalled that we were all already , "a little" verminous. Every evening there was a fierce hunt in shirtsleeves. I killed about a hundred every evening [...] but the next day there was a new hundred again [...] When you looked at the blanket under the light - the whole surface was constantly moving. They were various - and small and larger, bursting, oblong, white and gray, red from blood and striped... they were crawling slowly - and on the backs of others - sliding fast. Pilecki - despite the weakness associated with the cold - still had the strength to fight the vermin. Others, however, sick, powerless and resigned, lay listlessly and allowed the lice to make food from their bodies. Such a sight made people doubt the sense of continuing to resist camp conditions. However, one could not allow oneself to be dominated by such emotions. "Whoever gave up on life - died very quickly," Pilecki pointed out. The meticulous Pilecki made every effort to ensure that German torturers did not remain anonymous in the Report and, as far as possible, outlined the profiles of those who displayed the greatest cruelty. Much of Pilecki's attention is devoted to a special group of prisoners, the functionaries. In the early days, these were 30 German criminals who were transported to Auschwitz from Oranienburg, becoming the de facto first prisoners of the new camp. The most brutal were the first and last of the group, namely Bruno Brodniewicz once Leo Wietschorek, who displayed exceptional cruelty. It is worth noting, however, that Pilecki also points out the presence of German capos who were relatively okay, at least for the conditions in Auschwitz. Of the camp staff, Gerhard Palitzsch was the most memorable to Pilecki. He arrived at Auschwitz in May 1940, assuming the position of Rapportführer and very quickly becoming one of the most cruel functionaries. Not only did he abuse prisoners, but most importantly, from November 1941, he was the main executor at the Black Wall (Death Wall) in the courtyard of the aforementioned Block 11. Palitzsch is credited with murdering thousands of people. Palitzsch himself was also involved in the first use of Zyklon B at Auschwitz. The circumstances of this event were related to the outbreak of the German-Soviet war and the appearance of the first Russian prisoners of war in the camp. On September 3, 1941, at the behest of camp director SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, SS men herded some 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 sick from the camp hospital into the underground of Block 11. The Germans then poured pellets of Zyklon B preparation, which had previously been used in the camp as a disinfectant, through basement windows. The windows were covered with earth. The next day it was noticed that some of the captives were still alive, so another batch of gas was added to kill them. The genocidal experiment turned out to be crucial to the further criminal history of Auschwitz. As you read the Report, you can see how much the character of the place changed, both in terms of topography, as the camp underwent constant expansion, and in terms of the conditions within it, right up to the ultimate purpose of Auschwitz, which became a veritable death factory. All of this makes an important place in Pilecki's account for the issue of Jewish prisoners, and to be precise, their Holocaust. What is extremely important, the Rotmistrz does not focus only on the dramatic consequences of German policy, but also notes all the perfidy and meticulousness with which the Germans prepared for genocide. Thus, Pilecki points out, among other things, that the entire process was not accompanied by chaos, shouting and brutal violence, but by a precise plan that, still being refined, largely preyed on human emotions. As the Pilecki noted: I had the opportunity to talk a few times with Jews from France and once, with a transport from Poland, rarely seen here. It was a transport of Jews from Bialystok and Grodno. From what they said in unison, it seems that as a result of official announcements in various cities and states under the German partition, from which it was clear that only those Jews would still be able to live who would go to work in the Third Reich - so they went to work in the Third Reich. All the more so because they were encouraged by letters written by Jews from Auschwitz, and certainly from other camps, that they were working in good conditions and doing well and succeeding. They were allowed to take hand luggage - as much as they could carry themselves. So they took one or two suitcases, in which they tried to transport all their possessions, selling real estate and movable property and buying some small item of value, such as diamonds, gold, gold dollars, etc. Railroad transports carrying about a thousand people every day ended their route at a siding in Rajsko. The trains were put under the ramps and the contents were unloaded. I wonder what thoughts were floating under the skulls of the ss-manns. There were many women and children in the wagons. Sometimes children in cradles. Here they were to end their lives all at once. They were being driven like a herd of animals - to slaughter! For the time being, without sensing anything, the passengers disembarked on the ramp on command. Arrival at the camp did not immediately entail the end of illusions, on the contrary - it was here that German cynicism reached a veritable apogee. However terrifying the sight of the camp might have been - it was never suggested to anyone that they would be murdered in a moment. After all, that could have threatened a revolt, and given the large number of Jews being brought in - that would have caused quite a problem. We often wonder how a few SS men could control such a crowd. The answer is contained in one word - psychology. Regardless of the circumstances, a person trusts that he will survive. The SS men skillfully exploited the moods of the prisoners and, as Pilecki recalls: To avoid troublesome scenes, relative politeness was maintained towards them. They were told to put away food on one side of the pyramid and all their belongings on the other. They were told that things would be returned. The first anxiety arose in the passengers as to whether their belongings would be lost, whether they would find their own, whether their suitcases would be swapped, etc. These activities were followed by a selection, which for many was equivalent to a last look at loved ones. Then those who were deemed unfit - were led to the bathhouses, separately men and women with children. The final destination, however, turned out to be not the bathhouses, but the gas chambers, where the newly arrived Jews awaited death. Photographs that show groups of Jews being led toward the quasi-bathhouse have survived to this day. The photos you see on the screen now show people who will be murdered in a few minutes. Is this what people who are aware of the Holocaust look like? Besides, even in the chambers the Germans used the perfidious bluff of dummy showers. As Pilecki recalled: After the sealed doors were closed, a mass murder was taking place inside. From the balcony - the cloister ss-mann in a gas mask threw out on the heads of the crowd gathered below - gas! Gas of two types was used - in cylinders, which broke apart, and solidified gas - in the form of discs, which, when the airtight cans were opened and thrown in by the ss-mann wearing rubber gloves, went into a volatile state filling the gas camera and killing the people gathered here quickly. This lasted for several minutes. There was a wait of ten minutes. Then it was aired, the doors of the cameras on the opposite side from the ramp were opened and commandos composed of Jews transported the still-warm bodies in wheelbarrows and wagons to the nearby crematoria, where the corpses were quickly burned. Meanwhile, hundreds more were going to the cameras. Pilecki's attention also did not escape the massive looting of the property of the murdered. Valuables were stored in the so-called Canada, under which name special barracks were hidden, and the name itself alluded to the image of Canada as a welfare state. Pilecki remembered that: Everything that was left behind the people: pyramids of food, suitcases, clothes, underwear - in principle was to be burned also, but this was a theory [...] Soon, too, in caps and ss-manns could be seen the best underwear, often coming from the French capital. Silk shirts, such shorts and luxurious shoes. And in addition, soaps, perfumes of the best, razor blades, brushes and women's cosmetics [...] SS-men were snooping in suitcases and wallets, looking for gold, money, diamonds. Auschwitz soon became a source from where diamonds and gold began to flow out like streams. Such was the image of the German death factory that Witold Pilecki immortalized in his Report. Of course, we can find even more information in this amazing testimony. The Rotmistrz devotes a lot of space to survival strategies in the camp, better and worse jobs, experiments in Block 10, Aktion Zamosc and the camp's conspiracy, the creation of which was, after all, one of Pilecki's main tasks. Pilecki spent two years and seven months in the camp. Toward the end of his stay, a situation occurred in the camp that determined the end of his mission. The camp authorities conducted selections of Poles, some of whom were transported to other camps, i.e. Buchenwald, Neuengamme, Flossenburg, Gross Rosen and Sachsenhausen. Significantly, the transports included members of the camp's underground, with the result that Pilecki lost valuable collaborators. All of this led to the fact that on April 13, 1943, Pilecki decided to meet with an imprisoned representative of the Auschwitz Headquarters and report to him that he was planning to leave the camp, which was met, as we already know, with the fully understandable disbelief of his superior. For the Pilecki, however, nothing was impossible. Exactly two weeks later, on the night of April 26-27, 1943, together with Jan Redzej and Edward Ciesielski, Pilecki carried out one of the most daring escapes in Auschwitz history. An indispensable role in the success was played by the place from which the prisoners undertook their escape. It was one of the camp's bakeries located in Niva, remaining at a considerable distance from the main camp. The Poles were guarded by just two guards, under whose inattention the prisoners broke down the wooden door of the building and ran towards the railroad tracks. Running as hard as they could, they eventually reached the Vistula River, across which they crossed in a boat they found. Their trail then led through Alwernia, Tyniec, Wieliczka, the Niepołomice Forest all the way to Nowy Wiśnicz. In fact, a peculiar story happened in Nowy Wiśnicz, as Witold Pilecki met there... the real Tomasz Serafiński. The man, although extremely surprised by the fact that the Pilecki was using his personality, gave the hero shelter for the next three months. In the collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a drawing, made by Jan Stasiniewicz immediately after his escape from the camp, in which he depicted Witold Pilecki and the real Tomasz Serafiński. In such, you will admit, an extremely symbolic way, ended the mission of Witold Pilecki, in front of whom fate very quickly set further, very difficult tasks. His escape from the camp was followed by further conspiracy, and then participation in the Warsaw Uprising, a stay in Italy in the ranks of the Polish Armed Forces, and finally a return to the country, where instead of honors, he met wrongful arrest and death. The methods of the Communists are best evidenced by the words of Pilecki himself, who in May 1948, during his last visit with his wife, confessed: "I can no longer live, I was finished. Auschwitz was a playground." To this day, the burial place of the Polish hero is unknown, and all attempts to indicate this one are only hypothetical. This makes the continued remembrance of Witold Pilecki, an Auschwitz volunteer who risked his own life to document German crimes, all the more important. Thank you for your attention and see you in the next episode.