Page 20 - Jewish News_September-2020

20 September 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

A Polish hero for the Jewish people Jewish-themed Crossword Puzzle

By Paul R. Bartrop, PhD
n September 22, 1940 – 80 from outside; organizing extra food and group of communists and socialists to Pilecki’s report was thus able to Your monthly crossword puzzle
years ago this month – a Polish dividing clothing among TAP members; break with the ZOW and form a new confirm for the Allies the Holocaust
Ocavalry officer named Witold sending reports outside; and, above all, movement, Kampfgruppe Auschwitz that was then taking place. It was the is generously brought to you by
Pilecki infiltrated the Auschwitz exter- preparing for a takeover in the event of (Auschwitz Combat Section), on May first insider documentation authenticat-
mination camp as a volunteer, with the an assault on the camp from outside. 1, 1943. ing the Holocaust to reach the Allied
intention of starting an underground Receiving permission to proceed, ZOW provided the Polish under- countries in the West.
movement there. he was given forged papers and a new ground outside with valuable informa- Upon returning to Warsaw, Pilecki
He was born on identity as “Tomasz Serafiński.” He let tion about the camp, and from October resumed his role as an officer with the
May 31, 1901, in himself be taken prisoner in a Warsaw 1940 they smuggled reports to Warsaw. AK. The Warsaw Uprising broke out
the Karelian town of round-up, and arrived in Auschwitz on As early as March 1941, via the Polish on August 1, 1944. He fought against
Olonets in the Rus- September 22, 1940. authorities in London, Pilecki’s reports the Germans until the Uprising was de-
sian Empire, close To create his organization, Pilecki informed the British government of the feated and then became a prisoner of
to the border with reasoned that only a system based on the atrocities taking place at Auschwitz, war. He returned to Poland in October
Finland. After Po- strictest secrecy could have any hope of and these intensified as gassings of 1945, but was arrested by the commu-
Dr. Paul Bartrop land’s independence success. He decided to base the move- Jews increased. In 1942, the ZOW was nist regime on May 8, 1947, as part of
from Russia in 1919, Pilecki joined the ment in two main areas, the revier (in- broadcasting from a secret radio and a crackdown of Home Army members.
Polish army and fought in the Polish- firmary) and the Arbeitseinsatz (office providing up-to-the-minute details as Subjected to a show trial on March 3,
Soviet War of 1919-1920. He remained responsible for labor distribution), as to the number of transports, arrivals 1948, he was sentenced to death and
in the army, becoming a cavalry officer he saw these as the most likely places and deaths in the camp. These reports executed on May 25, 1948.
in 1926. On April 7, 1931, he married to start a program of camp welfare. He were, for a time, the main source of After the end of communism in
Maria Pilecka, née Ostrowska, with named his secret network the Związek Allied intelligence about Auschwitz, Poland, Witold Pilecki was rehabili-
whom he had two children, Andrzej Organizacji Wojskowej (Union of Mili- and Pilecki hoped that action would be tated by Poland’s new democratic gov-
and Zofia. tary Organization, or ZOW). taken to attack the camp and bring its ernment on October 1, 1990. In 1995,
When Germany invaded Poland on At the same time Pilecki was es- operations to an end. he was posthumously decorated by the
September 1, 1939, Pilecki’s unit was tablishing his resistance movement, In 1943, after two-and-a-half years Polish government with the Order of
heavily engaged until being forced to another was being formed by Stanisław at Auschwitz, he decided to escape Polonia Restituta, and in 2006 received
withdraw to the south. It disbanded af- Dubois under the direction of the Pol- so he could testify on the situation in the highest Polish decoration, the Or-
ter the Soviet Union invaded on Sep- ish Socialist party. Within a short time, person and force the AK to attack the der of the White Eagle.
tember 17 and Poland surrendered. a third Polish group was formed by camp. On the night of April 26-27, Dr. Paul Bartrop is Professor of His-
On November 9, 1939, Pilecki, to- right-wing nationalists. Only in De- 1943, he and two others overpowered tory and the Director of the Center for
gether with Jan Henryk Włodarkiewicz cember 1941 did the three groups a guard and broke out. Holocaust and Genocide Research at
and Władysław Surmacki, founded one come together as some sort of feder- Making his way to Warsaw, he Florida Gulf Coast University. He can
of the first Polish underground move- ated movement, but by that stage other reached AK headquarters but was un- be reached at pbartrop@fgcu.edu.
ments, the Tajna Armia Polska (Secret nationalities in the camp had appeared able to convince anyone to mount the
Polish Army, or TAP), which, by 1940, and these, too, had organized their own hoped-for attack. He did, however, STAY CONNECTED
comprised some 8,000 men. In 1942 it resistance factions. After consider- compose a detailed report of over 100
was incorporated into the Armia Kra- able difficulties, Pilecki’s organization pages in length which was transmitted
jowa (Home Army, or AK). managed to unify with the most impor- to London. It was the first sustained
In mid-1940 Pilecki sought permis- tant of these, the Czechs, Russians and, intelligence report on Auschwitz, in-
sion to infiltrate the newly constructed later, the Austrians. cluding details about the gas chambers,
concentration camp at Auschwitz af- The ZOW soon became the ma- the process known as “selection,” and
ter it had been established for Polish jor resistance movement at Auschwitz. the existence of inhumane experiments
political prisoners. Later, he described Some smaller national groups persis- including forced sterilization. He also
the aims of the movement he intended ted, and inmates occasionally held dual itemized that Auschwitz contained
to create: keeping up fellow-prisoners’ membership within their own group as three crematoria capable of cremating twitter.com/jfedsrq
spirits by supplying and spreading news well as the ZOW. This enabled a small up to 8,000 people each day.

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