While at Auschwitz, Pilecki secretly drew up reports and sent them to Home Army headquarters. The first dispatch, delivered in October 1940, described the camp and the ongoing extermination of inmates via starvation and brutal punishments; it was used as the basis of a Home Army report on "The Terror and Lawlessness of the Occupiers". Further dispatches of Pilecki's were likewise smuggled out by individuals who managed to escape from Auschwitz.
The wiki entry both on him and his report are curiously light. Presumably because he makes zero mention of actual mass extermination, just lack of food (Gee whiz! Lack of food? In a warzone?) and "brutal punishments," but not so brutal that they warrant any detail.
Page 58 - Gas chambers and new "3-minute" crematoriums" (Electric ones) Digging up all the old buried bodies to burn in new fast electric crematoriums. Page 59-60 - Injecting phenol directly into the heart of patients to murder them quickly. Page 62 - Tells of gas chambers upon arrival to Brzezinka(Treblinka) Page 68 - women who "lost their figures" and were ugly to look at were gassed. 2000 of them. Page 74 - All the polish teens were needled with phenol to death Page 83-84 - the sexual experiments. No intercourse, semen produced and injected into women, and then irrradiated. Artifical sperm experiments. All people in these tests were needled with Phenol. Page 87 -10-20,000 Gypsies sent to Birkenau gas chambers
Would need a polish reader to find a paper copy from 1942 to validate, of course, or a translated version reference in a letter or paper prior to end of war to "prove it." But those mass exterminations were in his report, according to this.
Huh, fair enough. Weird none of it is mentioned on wikipedia. You'd think they'd use stronger language than "brutal punishments" for that kind of thing.
Would like to point out that NONE of these gassings or electric crematoriums took place at Oswiecim where he was, only at Birkenau and Brzezinka. He did mention the needles and phenol as occurring in Block 10 and 20 (sick bays/hospital), which were in Oswiecim.
One wonders if these rural folk saw "phenol" and assumed it was killing them? Again, unknown. Doesn;t seem like it would be a very effective "killer drug", and something more lethal could be generated. Of course, they were allegedly injecting it straight into the heart of the people, but the claim was that on doing so, the people died within seconds without thrashing. I'm no chemist or pharmacologist, so I can;t say for sure the efficacy of this treatment.
One more side note - Much of the day to day brutality was done by capos, inmates given authority to keep order inside the camps so the SS wouldn't have to deal directly with the prisoners very often. (Think barracks and work detail foremen.) For example, he mentions "Bloody Alois" quite often throughout the report, who was a capo and not a german guard.
Finally, Silesians separated themselves from Poles, claiming they were Silesians, and Poles are just those from Warsaw, and that Silesians were more German than Polish. This got them out of many of the punishments or harder work details, and put the into the capo group at times.
it would be nice to actually discuss and read this stuff without the constant spectre of "DENIER!" or even JAIL in certain countries. If the truth is that bad, let it be shone on.
Interesting. His 1943 report lists the people in his resistance group, and where they were/are at the time of his escape in 1943. This was his "Report W"
Mentions: murdered during interrogation, shooting, conditions of camp as reasons for death. Transfers, who is still there, who escaped, etc. By prisoner number. very detailed listing.
No mention: Gassing.
Very odd change from 1943 to 1945.
Mentioned in the narrative, but not one of the people he knew had this happen to them.
Yeah, the whole thing smells. The purpose of the reports was to be a "call to action" to forment sentiment against the camps. It's silly to treat them as a neutral source.
[ + ] NaturalSelectionistWorker
[ - ] NaturalSelectionistWorker 6 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 07:29:16 ago (+6/-0)
[ + ] deleted
[ - ] deleted 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 16:49:36 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Broc_Liath
[ - ] Broc_Liath 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 08:40:22 ago (+2/-0)
The wiki entry both on him and his report are curiously light. Presumably because he makes zero mention of actual mass extermination, just lack of food (Gee whiz! Lack of food? In a warzone?) and "brutal punishments," but not so brutal that they warrant any detail.
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 3 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 10:47:07 ago (+3/-0)
Page 58 - Gas chambers and new "3-minute" crematoriums" (Electric ones) Digging up all the old buried bodies to burn in new fast electric crematoriums.
Page 59-60 - Injecting phenol directly into the heart of patients to murder them quickly.
Page 62 - Tells of gas chambers upon arrival to Brzezinka(Treblinka)
Page 68 - women who "lost their figures" and were ugly to look at were gassed. 2000 of them.
Page 74 - All the polish teens were needled with phenol to death
Page 83-84 - the sexual experiments. No intercourse, semen produced and injected into women, and then irrradiated. Artifical sperm experiments. All people in these tests were needled with Phenol.
Page 87 -10-20,000 Gypsies sent to Birkenau gas chambers
Would need a polish reader to find a paper copy from 1942 to validate, of course, or a translated version reference in a letter or paper prior to end of war to "prove it." But those mass exterminations were in his report, according to this.
[ + ] Broc_Liath
[ - ] Broc_Liath 3 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 10:55:02 ago (+3/-0)
Still ridiculous propaganda of course.
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 11:37:13 ago (+2/-0)
However, phenol is used mostly as a disinfectant https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/phenol.
One wonders if these rural folk saw "phenol" and assumed it was killing them? Again, unknown. Doesn;t seem like it would be a very effective "killer drug", and something more lethal could be generated. Of course, they were allegedly injecting it straight into the heart of the people, but the claim was that on doing so, the people died within seconds without thrashing. I'm no chemist or pharmacologist, so I can;t say for sure the efficacy of this treatment.
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 2 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 11:42:40 ago (+2/-0)
Finally, Silesians separated themselves from Poles, claiming they were Silesians, and Poles are just those from Warsaw, and that Silesians were more German than Polish. This got them out of many of the punishments or harder work details, and put the into the capo group at times.
it would be nice to actually discuss and read this stuff without the constant spectre of "DENIER!" or even JAIL in certain countries. If the truth is that bad, let it be shone on.
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 13:42:45 ago (+1/-0)*
PDF HERE: https://www.polishmuseumarchives.org.au/Witold_Pilecki/OtherDocuments/Report_W.pdf
Mentions: murdered during interrogation, shooting, conditions of camp as reasons for death. Transfers, who is still there, who escaped, etc. By prisoner number. very detailed listing.
No mention: Gassing.
Very odd change from 1943 to 1945.
Mentioned in the narrative, but not one of the people he knew had this happen to them.
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 1 point 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 13:35:47 ago (+1/-0)
His reports while in Oswiecim were smuggled to Polish exile gov't in London.
Only in late 1945, after the war, and after release from a POW camp, did he compile the full 100+ page report.
One wonders the differences between the reports smuggled and in UK archives and his final report written in late 1945.
[ + ] Broc_Liath
[ - ] Broc_Liath 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 18:59:40 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] account deleted by user
[ - ] account deleted by user 0 points 2.7 yearsSep 7, 2021 23:24:01 ago (+0/-0)