Wednesday 31 May 2023 @ 10:30

On Wednesday, a ceremony will be held to name the ECR Group meeting room, SPAAK 1A002, in honour of Witold Pilecki, a Polish World War II officer, intelligence agent and resistance fighter who fiercely resisted both Nazism and Communism and whose opposition to totalitarian regimes represents the core values underpinning European integration.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola will attend the ceremony alongside ECR Co-Chairmen Prof Ryszard Legutko and Nicola Procaccini, and EPP Chairman Manfred Weber.

In 1940, Witold Pilecki, a decorated veteran of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, volunteered to allow himself to be captured by German occupying forces in order to infiltrate Auschwitz concentration camp. During the two and a half years Pilecki spent at the camp, he smuggled out huge amounts of information, documenting the day-to-day brutalities of prison life. Some years after his escape from Auschwitz, in 1947, the Communist authorities captured Pilecki. Accused of spying, he was tortured into signing a ‘confession’ and executed a year later.

Following the ceremony, a conference paying tribute to the life of Witold Pilecki will take place in the newly named room. The conference will be co-hosted by ECR MEP Anna Fotyga and EPP MEP Rasa Juknevičienė.

The invited guests include, Marek Ostrowski, nephew of Witold Pilecki; David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (1990-2022); Magdalena Gawin, Director of the Pilecki Institute; Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance; Tandeusz Płużański, son of Pilecki’s co-conspirator and death-cell inmate; and Marek Mutor, President of Platform of European Memory and Conscience

The event will be web-streamed here.

When: Wednesday @ 10:30

Where: SPAAK 1A002