The Secret Polish Army was a group of underground resistance fighters who schemed against the Nazi occupation of Poland. Witold Pilecki, a military veteran, held a rather high position in the organization, and would do anything to aid his country. That included volunteering to get himself arrested in order to investigate what was going on at the Auschwitiz detention camp. That was in 1940, before the camp became a facility to kill as many inmates as possible, but it already had a reputation for brutality.
For two and a half years, Pilecki observed the transformation of Auschwitz into a death camp, and he managed to smuggle out reports to the Polish resistance and the Allies. He eventually urged the Allies to bomb the camp, but those who received the messages had a hard time believing the horrors that Pilecki reported. Their inaction convinced Pilecki that he had to escape on order to get their attention. Read the story of Polish resistance hero Witold Pilecki at Smithsonian.
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