Witold Pilecki > Quotes

“A man fighting for his life can do more than he ever imagined he could.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“Those who looked death bravely in the eye were usually not chosen.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“I told him: “I have been inside for two years and seven months. I have had a job to do here. Lately I have had no instructions. Now the Germans have shipped out our best people with whom I’ve been working. I would have to start from scratch. I can see no further point in staying here. Therefore, I’m going to leave.” Captain 159 [Stanisław Machowski] looked at me in some surprise and said: “Yes. I can see that, but can one pick and choose when one wants to come to Auschwitz and when one wants to leave?” I replied: “One can.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“He claims to have attained quite quickly an almost spiritual state of serenity. He felt “happiness” at the solidarity which the camp’s terrible conditions had created amongst the Poles: “Then, I felt a single thought coursing through these Poles standing shoulder to shoulder, I felt that finally we were all united by the same anger, a desire for revenge, I felt myself in an environment perfectly suited to begin my work here and discovered within me a semblance of happiness...”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

“Initially holding up well, the girls quickly lost the sparkle in their eyes, their smiles and the spring in their step. Some of them continued to smile, but more sorrowfully.”
― Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery