The Man Who Volunteered for Auschwitz
People Who Made History
•
32m
In 1940 the Polish resistance decided it needed to send an agent to Auschwitz concentration camp. They were desperate to find out what was going on in a place that even by that stage of the war had an evil reputation. Historian Jack Fairweather tells the story of Witold Pilecki the Pole who volunteered for the job. He smuggled out the first accounts of the camp to the rest of the world. He chronicled its transition from a concentration camp for Polish political opponents to a factory of genocide.
Up Next in People Who Made History
-
Rise of Cleopatra
In this film three leading Egyptologists explore how Cleopatra became one of the most influential and powerful women of the ancient world.
We trace how Cleopatra's learning and intelligence enabled her to gain control of her own Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt; skilfully and ruthlessly overcoming her...
-
Death in the Parsonage: The Brontës
The Brontë family created some of the world's most passionate and enduring novels, yet their lives were shadowed by tragedy.
Dr Maddy Pelling and Dr Anthony Delaney challenge the romantic myths surrounding the family, tracing the harsh reality of their lives in 19th-century Haworth—a crowded Yor...
-
The Polish Pilots Who Fought for Britain
In the summer of 1940 Britain fought a battle for survival against the might of Hitler’s Luftwaffe. This Battle of Britain would see German air attacks on British airfields, cities, factories and docks. Brave RAF pilots intercepted these raids, but Britain was not alone. Among the RAF and Allied ...
