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Witold Pilecki

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The Resume

    (May 13, 1901-May 25, 1948)
    Born in Olonets, Russian Federation
    Polish cavalry officer and resistance leader
    Served in the Polish–Soviet War and Polish-Lithuanian War
    Volunteered to be captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz in 1940
    Escaped in April 1943 after nearly two and a half years of imprisonment
    Fought in the Warsaw Uprising from August to October 1944
    Arrested on charges of crimes against the Communist government and executed after a show trial in 1948

Why he might be annoying:

    He initially volunteered to be interred at Auschwitz two years before it had been designated as a Death Camp (at the time it functioned mainly as a POW camp).
    His actions were motivated more for the sake of Polish nationalism than a desire to help the Jews being persecuted and killed by the Nazis.
    His story didn't become widely known until after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989.
    His place of burial has never been found (it is thought to be somewhere within Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He wrote Pilecki's Report, the first comprehensive intelligence report on the atrocities of the Holocaust and its Extermination camps.
    While not Jewish, he has become a hero to Poland's Jewish community and Holocaust survivors (Rabbi Michael Schudrich wrote 'When God created the human being, God had in mind that we should all be like Captain Witold Pilecki.')
    The song 'Inmate 4859' by Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton is about him.
    He fought with distinction against the Nazis during their invasion of Poland and joined the partisan movement when they failed to drive them back.
    He voluntarily allowed himself to be arrested and sent to Auschwitz to understand the nature of the camp.
    He organized a resistance movement within the camp that eventually numbered in the hundreds, and secretly sent messages to the Western Allies.
    He was one of the few people to ever escape Auschwitz.
    After escaping, he shockingly continued to fight the Nazis in the Warsaw Uprising, getting rearrested and interred at a German POW camp (he was liberated by the US Army later the following year).
    He remained loyal to the London-based Polish government-in-exile after the communist takeover of Poland, which resulted in his being picked up by the secret police.
    He was tortured into confessing to false accusations at trial (they broke his hands and collarbones). After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to death.
    The communist regime in Poland suppressed any information about his exploits and fate, and so his story was completely unknown for decades.
    He said: 'I've been trying to live my life so that in the hour of my death I would rather feel joy, than fear.'
    He survived Hell on earth.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 157 Votes: 45.86% Annoying