Literary Award - Instytut Pileckiego
The Witold Pilecki International Book Award
IDEA
As a soldier, resistance fighter, true hero and a man of action, Witold Pilecki may not seem like an obvious choice for a patron of a literary prize. His famous reports, however, are more than a source of invaluable information on the functioning of Auschwitz-Birkenau: through his expressive style, Pilecki also offers an in-depth analysis of the situation in the camp and a broader humanist perspective. While providing information about specific events – the atrocities committed by the Germans in occupied Poland during World War II – the reports also serve as a testimony to the whole era.
By awarding the Witold Pilecki International Book Award we aim to recognize the significance of the universal message stemming from the experience of the 20th-century totalitarianisms. We wish to acknowledge texts which promote the fundamental values of human dignity, striving for the truth, willingness to sacrifice, and solidarity with the persecuted. This year, the special prize for war correspondents will go to an author reporting on events in Ukraine or Belarus. This is our way to empathize with Ukrainians and Belarusians fighting for freedom and defending human dignity. We appreciate the work of all those who provide us with reliable information about this struggle and help us understand its context.
We honor original academic works and excellent reportages. We wish to celebrate books which explore the subject extensively, bringing it to wide audiences.
The prize is awarded internationally. Eligible for nomination in each category are books written in Polish or English.
PARTNER
The partner of the award is the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.
Witold Pilecki International Book Award 2024
The Pilecki Institute and its partner, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, selected the winners of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award for the fourth time. It was awarded to authors of the best academic and reportage books published in 2023 on the Polish experience of two totalitarian systems. In addition, in view of the dramatic events unfolding across Poland’s eastern border, texts on Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine since 2014 or illustrating protests in Belarus after the rigged 2020 presidential election competed for a special prize.
The winners were announced at the Witold Pilecki Award gala, which took place on 18 October at the Reduta Banku Polskiego in Warsaw. The event was held under the honorary patronage of Hanna Wróblewska, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.
In the category of “Academic history book” (a monograph or synthesis on the Polish experience of its confrontation with two totalitarian systems in the 20th century), the work by Grzegorz Hryciuk, professor at the University of Wroclaw, was unrivaled. Przesiedleńcy. Wielka epopeja Polaków 1944–1946 takes a close look at the subject of forced resettlement from the Eastern Borderlands to the Western Territories, which began at the end of the
Second World War and affected as many as 800,000 Poles. Grzegorz Hryciuk portrays the drama of people forced to leave their little homeland and set off into the unknown, to a foreign place that, after a journey of many weeks in cattle cars, was to become their new home. The book is an analysis of an important chapter – albeit one often plagued by misconceptions – of Central and Eastern European history, and at the same time a universal story about loss and building one’s life anew.
The Awards Committee also presented two honorable mentions in this category to Łukasz Dryblak for his book Szermierze wolności i zakładnicy imperium, and to Katarzyna Nowak, author of Kingdom of Barracks. Polish Displaced Persons in Allied-Occupied Germany and Austria.
In the “Historical reportage” category, the committee selected one winner (no honorable mentions were awarded). The winner was Kalina Błażejowska, a journalist and columnist associated with the “Tygodnik Powszechny” weekly magazine. The winning book Bezduszni. Zapomniana zagłada chorych tells the story of the fate of disabled children, mentally ill adults and elderly people requiring round-the-clock care, who were deemed “unworthy of life” by German doctors, the titular “bezduszni”, or “soulless”. The author reveals the tragic fate of the victims of the Nazi “euthanasia” program, introducing the history of three institutions: a child psychiatric clinic in Lubliniec, a psychiatric hospital in Gostynin and a nursing home in Śrem. Kalina Błażejowska’s book uses previously unknown documents and accounts from witnesses and victims’ families to restore the memory of this forgotten extermination.
The winner of the “Special Prize” (for works examining Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine since 2014 or the ongoing protests in Belarus since 2020 and related repressions) was Christopher Miller, Financial Times correspondent in Ukraine. He reported on the Euromaidan protests, the annexation of Crimea and the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, among other events, one of the results of which is The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine. In a book based on personal experiences, dynamic accounts from the frontline and interviews with exceptional characters, the journalist covered the most important events in Ukraine’s recent history, including the genesis of the ongoing armed conflict. Vast, diverse, rebellious and hopeful – such is the picture of Ukraine that emerges from Christopher Miller’s book, whose style is characterized by great insight and sensitivity in equal measure.
An honorable mention in this category went to Olena Stiazhkina. The novelist and researcher affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine documented several months of the Russian occupation of Donetsk in her book Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary, combining personal experiences with the broader context of the events in question.
THE JURY
Dr. Łukasz Adamski – a historian and political scientist, specializing in the history of Eastern European countries and analysis of their current political situation. Deputy director of the Mieroszewski Center. Rapporteur for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine in 2014. Author of Nacjonalista postępowy. Mychajło Hruszewski i jego poglądy na Polskę i Polaków (2011) among others.
Prof. Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski – historian specializing in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lecturer at University College London and visiting professor at Natolin European Centre. Author of, i.a., The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733–1795: Light and Flame (2021) and The Polish Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1788–1792: A Political History (2012).
Prof. Marek Cichocki – political scientist and philosopher, expert on Polish-German relations and European integration. Lecturer at Collegium Civitas. Author of, i.a., Walka o świat (2022) and Północ i Południe. Teksty o polskiej kulturze i historii (2018). Winner of, i.a., the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award.
Dr. Piotr Cywiński – historian, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and Chairman of the Board of the Museum – Memorial Site of KL Plaszow. Author of, i.a., Auschwitz. A Monograph on the Human (2022) and Marsz śmierci w pamięci ewakuowanych więźniów Auschwitz (2016).
Jack Fairweather – journalist, writer and war correspondent. Author of books: The Volunteer: The True Story Of The Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz (2019), and The Good War: Why We Couldn’t Win the War or the Peace in Afghanistan (2014). The winner of Costa Book of the Year Award.
Prof. Patrycja Grzebyk – lawyer and political scientist specializing in international criminal law. Lecturer at the University of Warsaw. Author of, i.a., Cele osobowe i rzeczowe w konfliktach zbrojnych w świetle prawa międzynarodowego (2018) and Criminal Responsibility for the Crime of Aggression (2013). Winner of the Manfred Lachs Award for the best monograph on international law.
Wojciech Kozłowski – historian, PhD, since April 2024 director of the The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor.
Prof. Marek Kornat – researcher specializing in the Polish political thought of the 19th and 20th centuries, Sovietologist. Head of the Section for the History of Diplomacy and Totalitarian Systems at the Polish Academy of Sciences and lecturer at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. Author of, i.a., Poland and the Origins of the Second World War. A Study in Diplomatic History (1938–1939) (2021) and Niższość cywilizacyjna wrogiego narodu. Niemieckie dyskursy o Polsce i Polakach 1919–1945 (2020). Winner of, i.a., the Jerzy Giedroyć Award.
Krzysztof Kosior – representative of the patron’s family, great-grandson of Witold Pilecki. Participant of numerous social and educational projects, devoted particularly to the youth.
Dr. Wojciech Stanisławski – historian, expert on the history of the Soviet Union, Central Europe and Western Balkans. His articles were published in, i.a., “Aspen Review”, “Nowa Europa Wschodnia”, “Nowe Książki” and “Rzeczpospolita”.
Prof. Claudia Weber – historian, expert on the history of World War II. Lecturer at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Author of, i.a., Der Pakt. Stalin, Hitler und die Geschichte einer mörderischen Allianz 1939–1941 (2019) and Krieg der Täter. Die Massenerschießungen von Katyń (2015).
THE WINNERS
The authors of the best books in each category in 2024. recived a cash prize of PLN 40,000 and a commemorative statuette. Authors of commended books received a cash prize of PLN 15,000.
Gala ceremony in 2024.
Gala ceremony in 2023.
Gala ceremony in 2022.
Gala ceremony in 2021.