“The Auschwitz Volunteer” on Broadway

[henryk]

http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/3915 ... n-Broadway

One-man show on Polish war-time hero Pilecki on Broadway

Polish Radio 10.11.2018 17:01

“The Auschwitz Volunteer” is the title of a show presented on New York’s Broadway as part of the United Solo Theatre Festival.

Sunday’s premiere will be followed by a matinee performance on Wednesday, 14 November.

The show traces the story of Polish army officer Witold Pilecki who volunteered for a secret undercover mission of getting himself arrested by the Germans and sent to the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz in order to smuggle out intelligence to the Allies. He barely survived almost three years of brutality, disease, and starvation before escaping.

The show stars Polish actor Marek Probosz, who apart from pursuing an acting career both in his native Poland and the US, is a professor of theatre and film acting at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Narration appearance is by Terry Tegnazian, president and founder of Aquila Polonica Publishing, which published the English translation of Pilecki’s report from Auschwitz under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.

Witold Pilecki is known as the victim of two totalitarian systems.

Having escaped from Auschwitz in 1943, he reached Warsaw and fought in the 1944 Warsaw Rising. After the war he went to Italy and joined the Second Corps. He was sent by the Polish intelligence to Poland as a spy. However, he was captured by the communist services and executed in 1948.

His burial place has never been found. In 1990, he was rehabilitated and in 2008 received posthumously the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction. In 2013 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. (mk/aba)