Samuel Hank

12/08/2015
Dutiful Dedication:
We were struck over the head not only by SS rifles, but also by something far greater.
Our concepts of law and order and of what was normal, all those ideas to which we had become
accustomed to on this earth were given a brutal kicking. Everything came to an end. Its not
hard to imagine whats being referenced here, weve all heard and read countless tales of the
brutality perpetrated at Auschwitz Birkenau. But what if I told you that this story is entirely
different because the man who wrote those words was not sent to Auschwitz by the Germans he
was sent to Auschwitz by his own convictions, and he was inmate 4859, Witold Pilecki. A polish
army captain Witold embodied what it means to be a hero through his: fearless determination,
humanity, and humble devotion to do his duty.
Witold Pilecki was a staunch defender of his homeland. When he saw that his country
was in danger of being overrun by Russians in the east, he joined the army. When he saw it
threatened a second time, by the Germans in the West, he became an officer, and when he saw it
broken by the Nazis, he formed the resistance movement that fought back. When his unit was
forced to disband he chose to continue on fighting, becoming an instrumental founder and leader
of the first polish resistance. But unlike many other resistance leaders, he did not stay hidden
underground, rather he choose the hardest assignments for himself. This led him to volunteer to
be sent to Auschwitz to investigate what was occurring there. His fearless determination to
continue on despite the extreme danger proved the kind of man he was.
Witolds mission at Auschwitz was simple, get in, and gather as much information as he
could about German practices and get out. But after seeing the brutalities committed at the camp

and the degradation of those therein, he knew he could not abandon them or simply stay on the
sidelines. So he chose to remain at the camp for three years, and going above the dictates of his
mission he organized a resistance whose sole goal was to save as many men as it could, while
also sending information about the camp to the allies. He organized resistance and contingencies,
and used his shadow organization to improve the lives of all those at the camp the best he could.
He only even left the camp when he learned that his messages to the outside were being ignored
and so he sought to plead for the people of the camp in person. Witold came to Auschwitz with a
singular objective mission, but his solidarity with his fellow man made him stay.
Witolds self-imposed mission did not end with his escape, however. He personally
pleaded with allied liaisons to provide some form of relief for the camp, but he was ignored. The
allies simply believed his reports were too shocking to be true. Rather than resigning himself to
defeat, he continued on fighting in the resistance as part of the Warsaw uprising, but his devotion
once again did not end. He recognized that the soviet invasion did not bring freedom to his
people and so he continued his struggle, acting as a spy for the west on conditions in the new
communist regime. Despite all his heroism and deeds he was never to receive any form of due
recompense for on the evening of May 25th 1948 he was executed at the hands of his
countrymen, those he had once fought with all he had to free, had betrayed him.
Witold Pilecki made flesh the qualities of determination, humanity, and humble devotion.
The man was best summed up by the chief rabbi of Poland who said that, When God created the
human being. . . [He] had in mind that we should all be like Captain Witold Pilecki, of blessed
memory.

Works Cited
Pilecki, Witold. The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery. Trans. Jarek Garlinski. Los Angeles:
Aquila Polonica, 2012. Print.