12. The Man Who Volunteered For Auschwitz
PHOTO: mentalfloss.com
Witold Pilecki was a Polish resistance fighter during WWII. He arranged his own arrest and was sent to Auschwitz. He spent two years there, gathering evidence to convince the allies of the existence of concentration camps, transmitting staggering information about death tolls in the camp to the Polish Resistance, smuggling the information out through the laundry. Thanks to his work, the Allies understood the true gravity of what the Nazis were doing in Poland.
In 1943, Pilecki overpowered a night guard with two other Polish comrades and escaped Auschwitz. He would later be executed by the Russian Secret Police after WWII ended, but the memory of his bravery lives on.
