Special guided Tour of the Permanent Exhibition ‘"Witold Pilecki. In Resistance to Hitler and Stalin" - Instytut Pileckiego

Special guided Tour through our Permanent Exhibition as part of a special commemorative programme on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Special guided Tour of the Permanent Exhibition "Witold Pilecki. In Resistance to Hitler and Stalin" by Co-Curator Jack Fairweather (eng.)

30.01. 17.00 | Pariser Platz 4A, 10117 Berlin
Registration: https://forms.gle/7D9LbSo167GDWNE86

Witold Pilecki volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to report on Nazi crimes in the camp on behalf of the Polish underground. This extraordinary act of resistance made Pilecki the first to grapple with the camp’s horrors in his secret reports to the Allies and the first to call on the world to take action. Join bestselling author Jack Fairweather to learn more about Pilecki’s mission on a tour through the award-winning Volunteer exhibition. Jack will share his insights into what he learnt following in Pilecki’s footsteps for five years, and why his story matters so much today.

Witold Pilecki, the man after whom our institute is named, is the only known person who voluntarily went to Auschwitz. Based on his biography, our new exhibition not only documents his life but also offers fresh insights into the history of the Polish underground state, highlighting its extensive efforts to inform the world about the crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

Witold Pilecki's life story reflects multiple dimensions of the Polish experience in the 20th century: he was a victim of two totalitarian regimes, a resistance fighter against both, and a key witness to this pivotal era. His life was dedicated to the struggle for a free Poland and the fight against the two dominant totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. We are pleased to present this unique and gripping life story against the backdrop of the 20th century in our new permanent exhibition.

More about the exhibition

The invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in 1939 marked a turning point. Witold Pilecki was 38 years old when the Second World War began. Formerly a soldier in the Polish-Bolshevik War, he sacrificed his orderly life as a husband, father, and landowner to embark on an extraordinarily daring mission. It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster, but it was real story: he deliberately got himself arrested and taken to Auschwitz, where he organized a resistance movement and informed the world about Nazi crimes. After his successful escape, he took part in the Warsaw Uprising against the German Nazi occupation regime. In 1948, he was executed by the communist regime in Poland, and his body was never found.

Unlike in Western Europe, the victory over Hitler in Central and Eastern Europe did not bring democracy, prosperity, or security but paved the way for Soviet-communist dictatorships imposed from outside. Witold Pilecki’s struggle for a free Poland then turned against a communist regime installed by the Soviet Union. With clear-sightedness, he recognized the criminal nature of both National Socialist and Communist ideologies. The courage and determination with which he opposed the two great totalitarianisms of the 20th century still inspire us today and remind us of the value and fragility of freedom.

The exhibition "Witold Pilecki. In Resistance to Hitler and Stalin" was co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the public task "The Realisation of the permanent exhibition "Witold Pilecki - Polish History" at the headquarters of the Pilecki Institute branch in Berlin".