The story about Witold Pilecki (Inmate 4859) is a crazy and important story in history. If there is only one Sabaton history episode you will see, this is the one. Strongly recommended.
Witold Pilecki alias "Witold", "Druh"; conspiracy names "Roman Jezierski", "Tomasz Serafiński", "Leon Bryjak", "Jan Uznański", "Witold Smoliński"; codename T-IV (born April 30?/May 13, 1901 in Ołoniec, died May 25, 1948 in Warsaw) - cavalry captain of the Polish Army, co-founder of the Secret Polish Army, soldier of the Home Army, prisoner and organizer of the resistance movement in KL Auschwitz. Author of reports on the Holocaust, the so-called Pilecki's reports. He was accused and sentenced to death by the communist authorities of the People's Republic of Poland, executed in 1948. The sentence was annulled in 1990[2]. Posthumously, in 2006 he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, and in 2013 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. His body is missing and searched to this day.
I did not know the story of inmate 4859 and I am married to a Pole LOL I do know where Karelia is and I was surprised by the reference to "plains of Karelia" as Karelia is the bit of Eastern Finland now in Russia and I don't think of Finland as a plain. It is a gently rolling countryside of hills, forests and lakes. It turns out that where inmate 4859 was born is in a plain - the more you learn. Apologies for writing a huge screed on this but I was interested In everywhere in Finland you can get karjalanpiirakat (Karelian pies) and they are delicious. Plus there are a lot of folk traditions popular in Finland from Karelia When I worked in Finland I discovered a Karelian "folk" band called Värttinä and it became a staple in my car playing it when coming home from a concert and listening to upbeat Karelian folk music. Here is a sample: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l9ozxHOXf8I.html "Seelinnikoi" the opening track from their fourth album "Seleniko".
Witold's grandfather was in exile in Siberia for participating in the January Uprising of 1863, Than the family lived in Ołoniec, Karelia, back than in Russian Empire. It was before Poland regained the independance after ww1. But the family was the Polish patriots.
@@agnieszkazuk Putting folks in exile was a common tactic in Tsarist Russia and under the Soviet regime I wasn't aware of the January 1863 Uprising but it is typical to deport to initially Siberia then "rehabilitate" the deportees in a distant part of the empire. Knowing a little Estonian history I remember meeting an Estonian folklorist who after the fall of the Soviet Union used to visit remote villages in Siberia which were ethnically Estonian the descendants of Estonians who had been deported after the Soviet take over of their country. He also said they had good Georgian cheese in Estonia as Georgians had been moved to Estonia as had a small but significant number of Koreans from the far east of Russia.
