January 1945 - the liberation od KL Auschwitz-Birkenau | Read the testomonies of former camp prisoners - Instytut Pileckiego
23.01.2025 (Thu)
January 1945 - the liberation od KL Auschwitz-Birkenau | Read the testomonies of former camp prisoners
Read the testomonies of former camp prisoners form the CHRONICLES OF TERROR series. Selected volumes are 40% off on 24-30 January.
See also
- Virtus et Fraternitas Medals Presented at Belweder Palace
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Virtus et Fraternitas Medals Presented at Belweder Palace
The President of the Republic of Poland has awarded the “Virtus et Fraternitas” Medal to 18 individuals from 7 countries: the Czech Republic, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland.
- The Face of Crime: The Life and Death of Roman Shukhevych | Damian Karol Markowski
News
The Face of Crime: The Life and Death of Roman Shukhevych | Damian Karol Markowski
In recent years, the Ukrainian central and local authorities have been actively commemorating Roman Shukhevych, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), perceiving him as a powerful symbol of the fight for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. Within the last few months, President Zelenskyy named a military unit after the UPA, while the Lviv Oblast Council declared 2027 as the year of the UPA and Roman Shukhevych. Crucially, however, Shukhevych – the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the commander of the UPA, and the deputy commander of the Nachtigall Battalion – had actively collaborated with Nazi Germany and was responsible for ethnic cleansings, pogroms of Lwów Jews, and the mass murder of Polish civilians in Volhynia in 1943. Among others, he was the author of an explicit order to murder civilians. We look back at his life story and involvement in these and other crimes.
- The Second International Congress of the Pilecki Institute: A recap
News
The Second International Congress of the Pilecki Institute: A recap
Congress “Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s” took place on October 14 and 15, 2026 – two packed days of stimulating papers, keynote events, debates and discussions.
- Previously unpublished German archival materials from France’s ECPAD at the Pilecki Institute and the Warsaw Rising Museum
News
Previously unpublished German archival materials from France’s ECPAD at the Pilecki Institute and the Warsaw Rising Museum
The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor and the Warsaw Rising Museum have signed a strategic trilateral cooperation agreement with ECPAD (Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense / Defense Communication and Audiovisual Production Center), the French military audiovisual archive based in Ivry-sur-Seine, France. The agreement gives the Polish institutions access to unique Second World War photographs previously unseen in Poland, opens access to the vast holdings of the French archive, and launches a partnership of major significance for research into Polish history.
- „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
News
„Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
Three days, dozens of presentations, and researchers from Poland and abroad summed up the international academic conference held at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw on 2–4 September.
- The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute
News
The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute
A unique document has been added to the Pilecki Institute’s archives: the previously unpublished and unknown memoirs of a German official who worked in the civil administration of the General Government during the Second World War.
- Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government
News
Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government
"It is rare for a document to find its way into archival collections in which the voice of an official of the occupation apparatus himself – written down without any intention of accusation, and even stressing his own sense of normality – becomes one of the most eloquent testimonies to the criminal nature of the system he served", writes Dr Joanna Nikel in her initial commentary on the materials received by the Pilecki Institute.
- 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award
News
14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award
On Saturday, 5 September, at the Autumn Book Fair in Warsaw, the Pilecki Institute announced the titles and authors of 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award.
- New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust
News
New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust
Through October 29, the Pilecki Institute in New York is hosting an exhibition about the people who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust—and those who survived thanks to their courage.
- „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
News
„Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
The international academic conference organized by the Pilecki Institute is the first initiative in Poland to bring together interdisciplinary research on Soviet Central Asia, a region with an exceptionally complex history of totalitarianism, mass repression, and forced deportations, that also include the experiences of Poles.
- Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor
News
Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor
Marta Cienkowska, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, has appointed Karol Madaj Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor in Warsaw. His five-year term will begin on 30 August 2026. From 1 September 2025, Karol Madaj served as the acting director of the Pilecki Institute.
- Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów
News
Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów
On the night of August 13–14 our websites suffered another serious hacking attack. Content bearing the hallmarks of Russian propaganda and disinformation — targeting Polish history and reinforcing anti-Ukrainian narratives — was deliberately placed on the Institute's pages devoted to Augustów, Berlin, and Warsaw.