Page 31 - LOTN Advent issue 57

FAITH AND CULTURE

version of his report from KL
Auschwitz, a copy of which
he gave to General Tadeusz
Pelczynski. In the autumn
of 1945 he returned to
Poland under the name
of Roman Jezierski. The
German occupiers had
withdrawn, but with the
Soviets, a no less barbaric
rule was established. In the
country, Pilecki conducted
intelligence activities
for II Corps, to which he
sent information about
the social and political
conditions in the country,
and about the repression
of the Polish population by
the Soviet NKVD and the Witold Pilecki's show trial in 1948 when he was sentenced to death
UB (Security Office). After [Anonymous work: Wikimedia Commons]
several months of activity, that one day the Polish government and the emigration
the NKVD were able to track Pilecki’s activities. Then Pilecki centres would finally come to an understanding”.
received instructions from General Anders, transferred his Maria Pilecka and his court defender also wrote letters to
duties to another person and left for II Corps. He did not Bierut with a request for Witold’s reprieve. Bolesław Bierut
want to leave his country. Instead he continued to fight for did not exercise his right of pardon. Moreover, during Bierut’s
Poland’s independence. rule, 2,500 people were executed in Poland - these were
Pilecki was arrested on the 8 of May, 1947 in Warsaw. The members of the Home Army and people associated with
th
cavalry officer was accused of espionage and of preparing the Polish government in London. Pilecki’s fellow prisoners
an attack on high officials of the Ministry of Public Security. from the Auschwitz concentration camp also sent a letter to
Additionally, he was accused of using false documents and the Prime Minister, Józef Cyrankiewicz. But for Cyrankiewicz,
illegally possessing firearms. Pilecki denied the allegation who was also once a camp prisoner, Pilecki was, "an enemy
of the assassination plans because it was simply not true, of the people and the People’s Republic of Poland". Once
and he maintained that collecting information for General Pilecki knew that his days were numbered he asked his wife
Anders was his sworn duty as a soldier. He pleaded guilty to to buy a book that he read regularly throughout his life: The
the remaining charges during the trial. Pilecki was subjected Imitation of Christ (De imitatione Christi) by Thomas à Kempis.
to a brutal interrogation and horrific torture. After the last Then he said to Maria: "This will give you strength! ”. Witold
interrogations, Pilecki's collarbones were broken. He could asked Maria to read parts of this work to their children every
not keep his head upright, and his arms hung limply along day. At that time, their son Andrzej was 16 years old and their
his body. During the last visit of his wife to him in prison daughter Zosia was 15. Years later, in an interview Pilecki’s
Pilecki said that Auschwitz was child's play compared to daughter Zofia said that she appreciated this book very
what the communists did to him. much and read it all the time...
th
Witold was sentenced to death on the 15 of March, 1948. The cavalry officer was executed on the 15 of May,
th
After the verdict, his wife Maria appealed to the prosecutor, 1948, in the Mokotow prison in Warsaw; shot in the back
Czeslaw Lapinski, who had accused Witold of espionage and of the head. One of the witnesses of Witold’s murder was
selling himself to foreign powers. She received this response: a priest, Jan Stepien, who was also imprisoned in the UB
"Your husband is an ulcer on the body of the People’s (Polish secret police under Communism) torture chamber
Republic of Poland that needs to be cut out”. in Mokotow district at that time. Years later Father Stepien
Pilecki, after his wife’s insistence, wrote a letter to the then described Witold’s last journey as follows: "I will never forget
president of the People’s Republic of Poland, Boleslaw Bierut, this sight. Two convicts were led away. Witold Pilecki was the
to exercise his "power of clemency". In his letter he wrote: first to appear. His mouth was tied with a white bandage.
"It never occurred to me that my actions were espionage, He was led under the arms of two guards. His feet barely
because I was not acting for a foreign power, but I was touched the ground. And I don’t know if he was conscious
sending messages to the Polish branch, and I always hoped at the time. He looked completely faint… And then a volley”.
Witold Pilecki did not die in the Auschwitz crematorium or
in the Warsaw Uprising, but was murdered for the sake of a
free Poland at the hands of Polish communists. This was their
II Corps. Following demobilisation on 15 November 1947, way of thanking him for his fight for Poland’s independence
Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo, where he spent the rest in two wars, and for telling the world the truth about
of his life. He died on the 2nd of December, 1963, aged 21. Auschwitz. Pilecki’s family was not informed about his death.
Today Wojtek Memorial Trust can be visited at the west end Maria, who came to see Witold with a parcel, was told that
of Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. he had left. For years, Pilecki’s relatives believed that, like

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