25.05.1948 – The day of one of many betrayals. Let’s not forget his sacrifice.

On this day, in 1948, Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki was executed. His official sentence was issued a few months earlier, on the 15th day of March.

Witold Pilecki, "Kind of"captain in the Polish Army cavalry served in the army since 1918, having fought in the Polish-Bolshevik War. He was blessed with one son and one daughter. But only six years after the latter was born, The Second World War began. As we know, Poland, although fighting bravely, fell not long after the outbreak of the war. But his service did not stop. Deeply involved in the Home Army, he continued his fight. He quickly became one of the leaders of TAP – the Secret Polish Army, declaring loyalty to the government in exile.

Probably the best-known part of his life is his voluntary imprisonment in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. In 1940, alongside other leaders of TAP, he decided to infiltrate Auschwitz. He was tasked with gathering intelligence, contacting organization members inside the camp, and organizing resistance there. He was reported by other inmates as a deeply faithful man, often praying with other inmates and not abandoning hope.

After three years of suffering inside the camp, he escaped, returning to the fight. He had already planned to attack the camp and liberate its inmates.

"We had not asked anyone for help; we were waiting for orders – either authorization to begin action on our own, or a ban on doing so."

And, against his desire, he was not allowed to conduct the operation due to the lack of any real chance of success, according to the command.

After the fighting in the Warsaw Uprising, after the war, Poland did not get the freedom he hoped for. Since he was faithful to the government in exile, and thus to the western allies, he was made an enemy by the new regime. He was captured in 1947. For a long time, he was held under arrest, while the communist institutions were conducting an investigation against him. He was tortured brutally by the UB forces, including at the hands of one of the cruelest officers, Eugeniusz Chmiczak.

“He was tortured in an outright barbaric manner: his fingernails and toenails were torn out, his testicles were crushed, and he was impaled on a stool leg. He was subjected to inhuman torment.”

This time, he was not supposed to escape from the prison. After a year, he was executed on May 25, exactly 78 years ago. Accused of spying for the government in exile, falsifying documents and an illegal crossing of the border, he was betrayed. His great sacrifice was forgotten, and the regime tried to portray a hero as a villain.

May we not forget! God bless his soul, and as always, cześć i chwała bohaterom!