Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz with Dr. Edna Friedberg and Dr. Timothy Snyder
To commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum sponsored a program in conjunction with the Polish Embassy, "Captain Witold Pilecki and the Resistance in Auschwitz." The program explored the story of Witold Pilecki using an informal ‘living room’ format featuring speakers Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz and Dr. Timothy Snyder, with Dr. Edna Friedberg moderating.
Like Jan Karski, Pilecki was a Polish army officer and member of the Polish Underground. Although Pilecki had a wife and two young children, he volunteered to be arrested and confined to the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to gather information about the camp. The Underground was also exploring whether it would be possible to break into the camp to rescue the prisoners, which they later concluded would not be feasible.
Pilecki was able to escape from Auschwitz and was one of the Polish Home Army leaders of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. After the war, he was sent to organize armed opposition to the Soviet-imposed regime. He was executed after the war because of this leadership. During the war, both the Nazis and Soviets frequently killed or imprisoned Polish leaders and intellectuals, a policy continued in Poland after the war by the Communists.
The remarks made by the speakers were extremely enlightening. Dr. Setkiewicz is Director of Research at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland and Dr. Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University and author of Bloodlands. Dr. Snyder contributed a biographical essay to the forthcoming Georgetown University Press edition of Story of a Secret State, which will be released March 15. Dr. Friedberg - an historian at the USMHM - did an excellent job moderating. Dr. Snyder summed up the program by talking about the two “exceptional” heroes of Polish resistance, Pilecki and Jan Karski.
A reception held by Polish Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf included an appearance by the son of the man who had found Pilecki’s manuscript in the archives of the Polish Underground in London. Terry Tegnazian, the publisher of the soon-to-be-released book, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery, spoke about the importance of Pilecki’s story in the understanding the Polish resistance during World War II. The book is available from the Aquila Polonica website at http://www.polandww2.com/.
The Jan Karski Educational Foundation was represented at the program by Giordano “Gerry” Chiaruttini, Jane Robbins, and Holly Robertson.
Photos, left to right: Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf addresses the auditorium; Dr. Setkiewicz, Dr. Friedberg and Dr. Snyder on stage, with photos of Witold Pilecki behind them; Publisher Terry Tegnazian talks about Pilecki's book [Photos courtesy of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum]
