120th anniversary of the birth of Witold Pilecki - Instytut Pileckiego

This year is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Witold Pilecki - we have joined PKP Intercity to start a special project prepared in honor of our patron.

Today we are joining PKP Intercity to commemorate Witold Pilecki in a unique way: the EU-44 Husarz train, which travels between Warsaw and Berlin – cities which are home to the seat of the Pilecki Institute and its Pilecki-Institut – has been decorated with a commemorative image presenting and a snapshot of Pilecki's life: his youth in Wilno, life at his family estate in Sukurcze, his time in Auschwitz and his trial in Communist Poland. In the center is the symbolic image of the Captain writing his famous report telling the world of the atrocities being committed in Auschwitz.

"His courage is inspiring" – the motto placed on the side of the train refers to the European Parliament's resolution of 19 September 2019 regarding the significance of historical memory for the future of Europe and calling for the date of Pilecki's death, 25 May, to be recognized at the International Day of Heroes of the Fight against Totalitarianism.

Witold Pilecki was one of the great heroes of 20th-Century Europe who stood up against both the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes. He volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz in order to document the crimes of the Third Reich and to tell the world about the nature and scale of the atrocities. Over the course of more than two and a half years, he established a resistance movement in the camp and organized an armed uprising before finally escaping in order to appeal personally to the commanders of the Polish Underground State to have the camp destroyed. In 1944, he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, he was brought before a Communist court and executed on 25 May 1948. In 1990 he was officially rehabilitated and was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle by President Lech Kaczyński in 2006.