Steal a competitor's bike. Use small children to your liking. Perform tricks worthy of a circus performer. These are just a few of the tips that will help you win a woman's heart in a truly uhlanian way. And each of them was personally tested by the famous captain.
Maria Ostrowska, a teacher from a seven-grade school in Krupa, was a beautiful woman.
A warm smile, drowning eyes and a pleasant disposition made the boys from the 5th Air Regiment stationed in Lida (now Belarus) chase her five kilometers away. Witold Pilecki, a young military man from the nearby Sukurcze estate, also drew attention to her. And he noticed right away that he had a lot of competition. He wasn't going to let go though.
Share your talents
As soon as he found out that the teacher was preparing a performance with her students, he decided to take advantage of it and offered to help.
As an extraordinary student of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Stefan Batory, who could paint quite well, could actually be useful for something.
Pilecki was not only a hero, but also a handsome man. No wonder that he finally won Maria's heart (photo:Andrzej Pilecki's private archive).
As the son of the captain Andrzej recalls in the book “Pilecki. In the footsteps of my dad ” :
Unlike her father, her mother did not have any art skills, so my father helped her make the set. This is how they met.
It wasn't love at first sight, however. Pilecki had to make a lot of effort to win the heart of his future wife.
Eliminate your competitors
From Lida to Krupa, to the property of the Szukiewicz family, where a beautiful teacher lived, a certain aviator was cycling. He must have been in love to pedal five kilometers one way to pay my respects to Maria.
Witold Pilecki, who was already able to diversify at that time, decided to get rid of this competitor. As his son Andrzej emphasizes in the book “Pilecki. In the footsteps of my dad ”, my father decided that an aviator should fly, not pedal. And he quickly turned from opinion to action.
Witold Pilecki with his wife Maria and son Andrzej. Photo from 1933 (source:Andrzej Pilecki's private archive; colorization:RK).
He paid someone to ... drive the suitor's bike and leave it under the unit in Lida, while he was busy making butter eyes for the teacher. Pilecki hoped that the mysterious disappearance of the bicycle and the five-kilometer walk would cool the aviator's feelings. It worked.
Show me what a romantic you are
When the competition was eliminated, the captain was able to proceed with the most important part of the operational plan, which was the assault on Miss Maria's heart.
As befits a seasoned lancer, he used his horse. His son, Andrzej Pilecki, mentions in the book “Pilecki. In the footsteps of my dad ":
He rode a horse near the house of the Szukiewicz family where she lived, and threw bouquets of flowers into her room through the open window. He supposedly exercised so much that flowers always landed on mom's bed.
But this is not the end. There were private dance evenings in the Szukiewicz family manor. The local youth had a lot of fun with the sounds of the piano.
Witold Pilecki did not miss these evenings, after all, it was a great opportunity to get closer to Maria. Maybe it was the bouquets of flowers falling through the window, or maybe the long hours of spinning to the music that made the young teacher finally reciprocate Pilecki's feelings. They got married on April 7, 1931.
Source:
Mirosław Krzyszkowski, Bogdan Wasztyl, Pilecki. In the footsteps of my dad , Znak Horyzont, Krakow 2015.