Pictures of War

Witold Pilecki:

In order to gather German intelligence, in September of 1940 Polish Resistance member Witold Pilecki volunteered to be rounded up by the German SS.  Two days later he was sent to Auschwitz - his plan worked just as he had hoped:

He became the only many in history to voluntarily enter Auschwitz as a prisoner.

He was able to organize an underground movement within Auschwitz and send information out to Resistance members in Warsaw, who in turn sent them to Britain - the basis for Allied intelligence on the camp and.  After the Gestapo learned of his movement and killed many of its members, Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz in April of 1943 with many German documents.

Pilecki was then present at the Warsaw Uprising a year later, taking part in the fighting against German forces who destroyed 85% of the city.

Once WWII ended and Poland came under Communist rule, he began gathering information on crimes against Poles by Soviets and the Soviet gulag system.  

However in 1947 he was caught and arrested.  After being tortured, he was put on a show trial in 1948 and executed at 47 years old.