New Pilecki Awards Committee Appointed - Instytut Pileckiego

Pursuant to the Regulations of the Competition and the Operating Regulations of the Awards Committee, on 1 April 2026, the Acting Director of the Pilecki Institute, Karol Madaj, appointed the Awards Committee for the 6th edition of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award. The eight-member Awards Committee includes three permanent members representing the Pilecki family, the Pilecki Institute, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, as well as members appointed each time by written decision of the Director of the Institute.

Permanent members

• Dr. hab. Patrycja Grzebyk, Professor at the University of Warsaw – on behalf of the Director of the Pilecki Institute, representative of the Competition Organizer;
• Dr. Piotr Cywiński – Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, representative of the Competition Partner;
• Krzysztof Kosior – Witold Pilecki’s great-grandson, representative of the family of the Captain, patron of the Competition.

Members appointed by the Director of the Pilecki Institute

• Prof. Agnieszka Bieńczyk-Missala
• Andrzej Brzeziecki
• Prof. Padraic Kenney
• Prof. Anna Mazurkiewicz
• Prof. Claudia Weber
• Iwona Jabłońska of the Pilecki Institute was appointed Secretary of the Awards Committee.

The Pilecki Award

The Witold Pilecki International Book Award has been presented since 2021 in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. In addition to representatives of both institutions and a representative of the Pilecki family, the Awards Committee includes Polish and international historians and publicists. In the 6th edition, the Award will be granted to the authors of the best academic books and historical reportages published in 2025 that address the experience of Central and Eastern European countries confronting totalitarian regimes in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on Poland. An additional Award will also be presented for documenting manifestations of activity and the remnants of 20th-century totalitarian systems in the contemporary world – for a book that bears witness to the criminal actions of totalitarian, post-totalitarian, and authoritarian systems today; that tells the story of the dramatic fate of populations affected by wars and armed conflicts; and that exposes cases of deliberate and persistent violations of human rights.

More information about the Witold Pilecki International Award (click).

Biographies of Members of the Awards Committee

Prof. Agnieszka Bieńczyk-Missala

A political scientist specializing in international and humanitarian affairs, including foreign policy, human rights, and international crimes. She holds a habilitated doctorate and is a university professor at the University of Warsaw, serving as Vice-Dean for International Cooperation and Head of the Department of Strategic Studies and International Security at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw. She is Chair of the Scientific Council for the discipline of Security Studies at the University of Warsaw and served as an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (2006–2008). She led the research project Zapobieganie masowym naruszeniom praw człowieka, funded by the National Science Centre (2013–2017). She is the author of numerous publications on Polish foreign policy, as well as the protection of human rights and international humanitarian law, including: Prawa człowieka w polskiej polityce zagranicznej po 1989 r. (2005); Zapobieganie masowym naruszeniom praw człowieka. Międzynarodowe instytucje i instrumenty (2018); Bezpieczeństwo międzynarodowe (2020, co-author); Horyzonty studiów strategicznych (2023; co-author).

Andrzej Brzeziecki

Historian, journalist, and publicist. A graduate of the Faculty of History at the Jagiellonian University. From 2002 to 2008 he was an editor at Tygodnik Powszechny, and from 2008 to 2019 Editor-in-Chief of Nowa Europa Wschodnia. He currently works at the Marek Karp Center for Eastern Studies (OSW). He publishes in Gazeta Wyborcza, Newsweek, Polityka, and Rzeczpospolita. He is a member of the Board of Founders of the Schuman Foundation. Since 2025, he has been a member of the jury of the NIKE Literary Award. He is the author and co-author of historical and reportage books, including: Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Biografia naszego premiera (Kraków 2015), Łukaszenka. Niedoszły car Rosji (with Małgorzata Nocuń) (Wołowiec 2016); Czerniawski. Polak, który oszukał Hitlera (Wołowiec 2018); Wielka gra majora Żychonia. As wywiadu kontra Rzesza (Kraków 2021); Kocio, Kozioł, Senator. Biografia Krzysztofa Kozłowskiego (Kraków 2022); Ostróda '46. Jak Polacy Sowietów gromili (Kraków 2023); Zmierzyć arszynem. Marek Karp i Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich (Kraków-Warszawa 2024). Most recently, he published a book-length interview with Piotr Nowina Konopka (Warsaw 2025).

Dr. Piotr Cywiński

Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, partner of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award. Historian, PhD in the humanities, social activist, co-founder and president of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Participant in Polish-Jewish and Christian-Jewish dialogue. Co-founder and Chair of the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute, lead expert at the Center for Research on the Economics of Memorial Sites at SWPS University, co-founder and president of the Association for the Management of Memorial Sites. From 2010 to 2016, member of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites; from 2012 to 2017, member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk; from 2017 to 2021, Chair of the Program Council of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw; Chair of the Council of the KL Płaszów Memorial Museum; member of the Museum Council at the Pilecki Family Home Museum. Author of numerous publications, including: Epitafium… i inne spisane niepokoje (2012); Zagłada w pamięci więźniów Sonderkommando (2015); Marsz śmierci w pamięci ewakuowanych więźniów Auschwitz (2016); Rampa w pamięci Żydów deportowanych do Auschwitz (2016); Auschwitz. Monografia Człowieka (2021).

Dr. hab. Patrycja Grzebyk, Professor at the University of Warsaw

Lawyer and political scientist specializing in international criminal law. Lecturer at the University of Warsaw. Author of, among others, Cele osobowe i rzeczowe w konfliktach zbrojnych w świetle prawa międzynarodowego (2018) and Criminal Responsibility for the Crime of Aggression (2013). Recipient of the Manfred Lachs Award for the best monograph in the field of international law.

Prof. Padraic Kenney

American historian specializing in the contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland. Professor and Vice-Dean for Social and Historical Sciences and Graduate Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University. From 2018 to 2020, he served as Director of the Collins Living-Learning Center. Previously, Professor of History at the University of Colorado Boulder. President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). A frequent contributor to the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Denver Post. Author of numerous publications, including: Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945–1950 (1997); A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989 (2002); Transnational Moments of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989 (2004); The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe Since 1989 (2006); Dance in Chains: Political Imprisonment in the Modern World (2017).

Krzysztof Kosior

Representative of the Award patron’s family: great-grandson of Witold Pilecki. Participant in numerous social and educational initiatives, particularly those aimed at young people.

Prof. Anna Mazurkiewicz

Professor of history at the University of Gdańsk, researcher of contemporary history, migration, and diaspora from Central and Eastern Europe, and specialist in American studies. Author of scholarly monographs and editor of collective volumes published by Polish, British, and German publishers, as well as articles and chapters translated into six foreign languages. Recipient of awards for her publications, including the Willi Paul Adams Award granted by the Organization of American Historians for the best book on United States history published in a language other than English (2019). Fellow of the Polish-American Fulbright Commission (Stanford University) and three-time fellow of the Kościuszko Foundation; in 2017–2018, President of the Polish-American Historical Association. Member of the editorial boards of international journals and publication series, including Oxford Research Encyclopaedias: Migration Studies (Oxford University Press), Journal of Migration History (Brill), Polish American Studies (University of Illinois Press), and Migrations in History Series (De Gruyter). Vice-Chair of the PAU Commission for Research on the Polish Diaspora and member of the Committee for Migration Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Member of the Historical and Program Council of the European Solidarity Center for the 2021–2025 term, the Program Council of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia, and the Council of the Polish-American Fulbright Commission Foundation.

Prof. Claudia Weber

Historian specializing in the history of the Second World War. Lecturer at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). Author of, among others, Der Pakt: Stalin, Hitler und die Geschichte einer mörderischen Allianz 1939–1941 (2019) and Krieg der Täter: Die Massenerschießungen von Katyń (2015).