Fighting Auschwitz by Jozef Garlinski

Author:Jozef Garlinski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aquila Polonica
Published: 2019-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

4. Pilecki’s Escape

At the beginning of 1943, Pilecki began seriously to consider the need to escape.21 It was not of himself that he was thinking, for after all he had, of his own free will, allowed himself to be picked up in Warsaw and taken to Auschwitz. The motives behind this decision were wholly bound up with the organization he had founded.

There could be no doubt that the underground network, already in existence for over two years in such an exposed area as a concentration camp, was bound sooner or later to become the object of attack from the Political Department and to suffer losses. This Pilecki fully understood and therefore, although the executions of January and February 1943 shook him and deprived the underground of many valuable men, he did not despair or feel that the organization as a whole was threatened. How fortunate it was that the instigator and organizer was himself an ordinary, inconspicuous prisoner, brought to the camp after a round-up, a man of whom the Gestapo had no record, who was not a senior officer or known to have a past which might single him out. In this respect the camp underground had passed the test, as had the brave men who had been thrown into the bunker and subjected to cruel interrogation. All the same, the fear of disclosure existed: Pilecki’s role of organizer was by now known to many underground soldiers. What would happen if, in the case of further arrests, one of them broke down under interrogation and gave him away? Pilecki himself was tough and self-confident, but could he guarantee to stand up to every kind of pressure?

The second reason for his decision was also connected with the Gestapo campaign against the underground. Through his contacts Pilecki had learnt from the Political Department that the command was planning a number of transports to other camps and in them, above all, were to be Poles with low numbers from good Kommandos. This was the same reason that the Germans were organizing big round-ups in the towns and deporting men to camps. In addition to using terror they fought the underground movement in this way, for among those picked up there were bound to be a certain number of resistance workers. This same device was now to be employed in Auschwitz. The SS knew that there was a resistance movement in the camp, that its leaders were Poles and that its members were chiefly young men. It was logical to suppose that the underground workers, especially the more important ones, would be working in the better Kommandos.

This proved to be correct. During 7th, 8th and 9th March, 1943, about 6,000 numbers were read out, all Poles, representing the best men in the camp, from good Kommandos in the stores and workshops. Pilecki was among them. They were taken to Blocks 12 and 19 and kept under guard. A medical board was convened. The underground immediately made efforts to recover many of its members under various pretexts.

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