In this TIME interview, Elliot Ackerman speaks with author and foreign correspondent Jack Fairweather about Witold Pilecki, the Polish resistance fighter who deliberately entered Auschwitz to document Nazi crimes and organize resistance from inside the camp.
An Extraordinary Mission
Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested during a German roundup in Warsaw in 1940. Sent to Auschwitz as inmate 4859, he spent nearly three years building a resistance network, sabotaging camp operations, gathering evidence, and smuggling reports to the outside world.
Recovering a Lost Story
Fairweather explains how Pilecki’s wartime record was suppressed after Poland fell under Soviet influence. Pilecki continued resisting communist rule, was arrested and executed, and remained largely absent from public history for decades.
Reconstructing Pilecki’s World
The interview explores Fairweather’s immersive research for The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz. He interviewed surviving witnesses, traced Pilecki’s escape route, and uncovered memories preserved by families who had sheltered him.
The Responsibility to Bear Witness
Pilecki’s reports challenged governments and citizens to confront atrocities that seemed almost impossible to comprehend. Ackerman and Fairweather consider his story as a lesson in courage, empathy, moral action, and the obligation to understand the suffering of others.