Furlong, Christopher. "From the Collection of Alexander Riseman." International Business Times
undercover
The war had to move underground. Poland might have lost the battle, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t determined to win the war. When Pilecki insisted on staying, he traveled to Warsaw and went undercover. It was at this point in early autumn in 1939, that the secret Polish army was created, in which Witold was chief of staff. They carry out acts of sabotage and assassinate key Nazi commanders.. Stories about the conditions behind the barbed wires of Auschwitz have been reaching the underground. There were ominous rumors in the earlier days but no one believed them. Because many of his military comrades had been sent to Auschwitz, he said he’d try and mobilize them from within the camp. So, he volunteered to try and establish a resistance network on the other side of the barbed wire.People say he had a plan that was both genius and pure madness. He planned on getting himself deliberately arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
Polish Prisoners of War, Defenders of Westerplatte
Who Held out for Seven Days in the Face of Heavy Nazi. Euromaiden Press |
Transport and arrival. The Holocaust Explained, The Wiener Library "Apel Fallen Replaced Appeal Memory." Prawapolityka.pl
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travel
No one knew where or why they were taking all of those people. That’s why Witold Pilecki wanted to go. Once inside he’d form another underground movement, break his comrades from the Resistance out, and get as much information on the camps as possible, but he had no idea what lies ahead.
August 19, 1940, was the first round up in Poland taking almost 2,000 people. At the time, Pilecki was staying in the apartment of his sister in law.
“Someone was knocking on our door. A German soldier in uniform was there asking, in polish, if there were any men in the house. Before my mom had a chance to say anything, Pilecki came out of the room, of which he was in with me, and asked what was going on. They ordered him to get dressed and said they were going to take him away,” said Andrzej Ostrowski, Pilecki’s nephew.
Once he got out of the apartment he was put on a bus and then a train both very crowded and dark. There was nowhere to sit or hold onto, so, people assumed it was all going to be a very short trip, but they were wrong. An hour passed by, then two, then a day, and then another. They’d yell and yell but no one would stop the train or even get inside and speak to them which scared them even more. But that was the least of their worries. No one knew where they were exactly going. No one knew what was going to happen. So, all they could do was wait. Wait until they stopped…and realized they couldn’t go back.
August 19, 1940, was the first round up in Poland taking almost 2,000 people. At the time, Pilecki was staying in the apartment of his sister in law.
“Someone was knocking on our door. A German soldier in uniform was there asking, in polish, if there were any men in the house. Before my mom had a chance to say anything, Pilecki came out of the room, of which he was in with me, and asked what was going on. They ordered him to get dressed and said they were going to take him away,” said Andrzej Ostrowski, Pilecki’s nephew.
Once he got out of the apartment he was put on a bus and then a train both very crowded and dark. There was nowhere to sit or hold onto, so, people assumed it was all going to be a very short trip, but they were wrong. An hour passed by, then two, then a day, and then another. They’d yell and yell but no one would stop the train or even get inside and speak to them which scared them even more. But that was the least of their worries. No one knew where they were exactly going. No one knew what was going to happen. So, all they could do was wait. Wait until they stopped…and realized they couldn’t go back.