(1901–1948) — Polish cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. In 1947 he was arrested by the communist secret police in Poland and executed after a show trial. Public domain

On the morning of September 19, 1940, the quiet streets of Żoliborz, a district of Warsaw, were shattered by the sound of boots and shouting. The SS had descended for one of their brutal raids, and by the end of it, around 2,000 civilians had been seized. They were loaded into trucks and trains, destined for a new kind of terror: Auschwitz. Among those taken was a man who did not resist, did not hide, and, remarkably, was there by his own choosing. He gave the name Tomasz Serafiński, but that was not who he truly was. His real name was Witold Pilecki, and unlike every other prisoner that day, he had volunteered to go.

Pilecki, assigned the prisoner number 4859, was no ordinary man. Born in 1901 in Olonez, Karelia, to a family of Polish patriots, his life had always been steeped in the currents of resistance. As a young man, he joined a scout group banned by the Russian Empire, reflecting the spirit of defiance that would define his life. Later, he became an officer in the Polish army and fought valiantly against the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. When Poland fell, Pilecki disappeared into the shadows of the resistance.

Rumors had already begun circulating in the underground about the creation of Nazi camps — prisons of torment and forced labor. One such camp was reportedly near the town of Oświęcim. Pilecki and his fellow resistance members…