The case opened Thursday in a Warsaw court and the next hearing is scheduled for January. Andrzej Pilecki, 90, argues that 26 million zlotys ($5.7 million) in compensation would be owed to his father under Poland’s communist-era wrongs law. His father, Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter, volunteered in 1940 to be captured by Nazi Germany and held at Auschwitz to organize resistance there and gather evidence of German atrocities. He escaped in 1943 and wrote a report that was the first direct report from Auschwitz made available to the Allies. After the war he was captured, tortured and executed by Moscow-appointed authorities on charges of spying for the Polish government-in-exile in London. His remains have not been found. In 1990, the GOP paid compensation to Pilecki’s widow and two children for the material support they lost due to his execution.
