Today in History - December 10 | The man who volunteered to be jailed in death camp
December 10
During World War II, the first reports of the Holocaust - the Nazi program of mass murder in occupied Europe - were received by Allied governments on December 10, 1942.
The shocking documents, outlining the mass killing of Jewish and other people by German forces - were smuggled out of Poland by resistance fighter Witold Pilecki.
Two years earlier, the former Polish army officer volunteered to be imprisoned in the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp.
Under a false identity, Pilecki and other prisoners recorded details about the Nazi's notorious killing machine responsible for millions of deaths.
In 1943, he escaped Auschwitz and rejoined the Polish resistance.
Tragically on his return to Poland in 1948 after the war, he was arrested by the communist government and executed as a traitor.
In the ensuing decades, Holden employed thousands of workers, producing well known car such as the Torana, Commodore and Statesman.
The final Holden made in Australia rolled off the production line in October 2017.
The company's vehicles are today made overseas.
The celebrated film Lawrence of Arabia, . starring Peter O'Toole, (right), and Omar Sharif, made its world premiere in London on December 10, 1962.
Directed by David Lean, the epic movie, based on the life of soldier and writer T.E. Lawrence, became one of the best known historical dramas in movie history.
It went on to win seven Academy Awards and established Irish actor O'Toole as a major star.
King Edward VIII abdicates the British throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson on December 10, 1936.
The marriage was vehemently opposed by the UK and Commonwealth governments and the Church of England.
After he stepped down from the throne, Edward VIII moved to France, but he was appointed Governor of the Bahamas during World War II because of his sympathies to Germany's Nazi Party.
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