19.09.1940 – Witold Pilecki’s deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka) and was caught by the Germans…

19.09.1940
…to bring the truth to the World about KL Auschwitz German death camp.

On 19 September 1940 – the second street round-up in Warsaw. Several people are still alive, who saw me walk alone at 6:00 a.m. and stand in the “fives” arranged of people rounded up in the street by SS-men. Then we were loaded into trucks in Wilson Square and carried to the Cavalry barracks. Upon registration of our personal data and taking away any sharp-edged tools (under threat of shooting down if just a safety-razor blade was found on anybody later) we were carried into a manege, where we stayed during 19 and 20 September.
During those several days some of us could get acquainted with a rubber baton falling down upon their heads. Nevertheless it was within the limits of acceptable measures, for people accustomed to such ways of keeping law by guardians of order. In that time some families bribed out their loved ones free, having paid huge sums to SS-men. In the night we all slept side by side on the ground. A large reflector placed by the entrance lit the manege. SS-men with machine guns were arranged in the four sides.
There were one thousand eight hundred and several tens of us.

Witold Pilecki’s Auschwitz Report

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