Pilecki was associated with the military since his youth.  At the age of just 17, he was drafted into the army, fighting on the eastern front against the Bolsheviks - including in the famous Battle of Warsaw.  When in 1921 the fight in defence of Polish borders was coming to an end, the young man was released from service and put his uniform in mothballs for nearly twenty years.

The outbreak of World War II meant going back to the army for Pilecki.  He fought in the September campaign, as the commander of the cavalry.  From mid-October 1939, as a result of routing of the Polish army, the military was forced to go underground.

Witold (a nickname used by Pilecki) began organizing the resistance movement in occupied Warsaw.  In November he founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska or TAP), which main activities were intelligence and sabotage.  TAP's actions drew the attention of Gestapo, which resulted that in the spring of 1940 many activists of the underground were captured and sent to a German concentration camp of Auschwitz.  Many more similar camps were created which aroused great anxiety among Polish conspirators.

The command of the Polish Secret Army, wanting to investigate exactly what type of threat it was dealing with, decided on infiltration of the Auschwitz camp to gather important intelligence and organize internal resistance.  The person selected to participate in this risky venture, was none other than Witold Pilecki.

Witold was captured by the Germans during the round-up in September 1940.  He worked under a false name and surname - Tomasz Serafiński, who was a September Campaign soldier killed in action (as it believed at that time).  Shortly after being placed in the camp, Pilecki began organizing an underground net – Związek Organizacji Wojskowej (the Union of Military Organization or ZOW).  Its main objectives were, among others: keeping up the spirits of fellow prisoners, transmitting messages between the camp and the outside world, secretly obtaining food and clothing and preparing troops, ready to recapture Auschwitz.

As a result of the more than two and a half year mission of Pilecki, command of the Home Army obtained many reports describing the cruelty of the death camp.  Simultaneously, the ZOW conspirators managed to organize several spectacular escapes - including the one from June 20, 1942 when they left the walls of Auschwitz in disguise of the SS, stealing a car of the camp commandant Rudolf Hoess for this purpose.  Pilecki managed to organise his own escape in April 1943.

Despite the efforts of Witold, a plan of attack on Auschwitz did not obtain the approval of AK.  The command decided that the camp is too well guarded, and the superiority in numbers of the enemy was far too great.  For his merits Pilecki was promoted to the rank of rotmistrz, in which he served until the end of the war.

In 1947 Witold Pilecki was captured by the communist authorities and accused of subversion to the detriment of the country (the military man worked in the underground after the war, believing in the possibility of seizure of power by the legitimate government in exile).  After many months in the torture chambers of the Office of Security, he was sentenced to death.  The sentence was carried out on May 25, 1948 in the Mokotów prison on Rakowiecka street in Warsaw.

Throughout the communist period, Pilecki's actions were covered up by the official state propaganda.  The death sentence was repealed and the Captain vindicated only in 1990.  Since then, the figure of Witold Pilecki is regularly quoted as an example of patriotic devotion, courage and steadfastness.  He is used as a theme of many books, movies, music, as well as monuments.  Pilecki is also a patron of schools and social actions.

Do you know?

• Before joining the army, Pilecki was a member of Boy Scouts, an organisation forbidden by the Russian authorities.
• As an active conspirator, Pilecki used many false names.  He worked, among others, as Roman Jezierski, Leon Bryjak, Jan Uznański or Witold Smolinski.
• Union of Military Organization had a specific structure, based on a system called Piątka (Five).  Each Piątka group of conspirators (not necessarily numbering five), consisted of people trusted by Pilecki.  Each Piątka developed independently, without knowing anything about the activities of the other Piątka's and believing that it was at the top of the organization.  This approach aroused enthusiasm in the conspirators.  At the same time absolute secrecy was kept and the risk of denunciation was minimised.
• After escaping from the camp, Pilecki met real Tomasz Serafiński who survived the fighting in September 1939.  Serafiński just like Witold, was active in the underground.
• Oświęcim was a trifle - these words were used by Pilecki to describe his stay in communist torture chambers, comparing them to his previous experiences in Auschwitz (Oświecim).
• Pilecki was buried in the so-called kwatera na łączce (quarter on the meadow) - a separate part of Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw, where the enemies of communism were secretly buried.
• In 2006 Witold Pilecki was awarded the Order of the White Eagle - the highest Polish state distinction.
• In 2013 Pilecki was promoted to the rank of colonel.