Reviews
A real contribution to our understanding of the history of Poland under Nazi occupation. - Antony Polonsky, the Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond BraveryCapt. Witold Pilecki, trans. from the Polish by Jarek Garlinski, foreword by Rabbi Michael Schudrich. Aquila Polonica (aquilapolonica.com), $34.95 trade paper (392p) ISBN 978-1-60772-010-2In 1940, the Polish Underground wanted to know what was happening inside the recently opened Auschwitz concentration camp. Polish army officer Witold Pilecki volunteered to be arrested by the Germans and reported from inside the camp. His intelligence reports, smuggled out in 1941, were among the first eyewitness accounts of Auschwitz atrocities: the extermination of Soviet POWs, its function as a camp for Polish political prisoners, and the final solution for Jews. Pilecki received brutal treatment until he escaped in April 1943; soon after, he wrote a brief report. This book is the first English translation of a 1945 expanded version. In the foreword, Poland's chief rabbi states, If heeded, Pilecki's early warnings might have changed the course of history. Pilecki's story was suppressed for half a century after his 1948 arrest by the Polish Communist regime as a Western spy. He was executed and expunged from Polish history. Pilecki writes in staccato style but also interjects his observations on humankind's lack of progress: We have strayed, my friends, we have strayed dreadfully... we are a whole level of hell worse than animals! These remarkable revelations are amplified by 40 b&w photos, illus., and maps, In the summer of 1945, a Polish officer serving with British forces in Italy wrote an extraordinary memoir. In 1940, as the London-based Polish government-in-exile puzzled over what might be going on in the still little-known camp the Nazis had set up in Auschwitz, Pilecki-then 39 and a founder of the Polish Resistance-volunteered to find out. On Sept. 19, he deliberately wandered into the middle of an SS street roundup of military-aged Poles, and soon learned.Auschwitz was not yet an organized, industrial-production death camp, dedicated to killing millions of Jews as quickly as possible. But it was already designed to kill-by overwork, by starvation, disease and random, almost casual murder-the Poles who made up the early inmate population. That much was evident to Pilecki on his arrival, when the new prisoners were driven from their freight cars by rifle butts and guard dogs. One man was told to run to a post; when he did, the SS machine-gunned him. Another 10 prisoners were then pulled from the crowd and shot, the price of their collective responsibility for the escape, according to the guards. (All this, noted Pilecki, who astonishingly never lost his profound sense of irony, before the new inmates had seen the infamous sign above Auschwitz's gates, Work makes you free. He says, It was only later that we learned to understand it properly.)Pilecki, as revealed in his 1945 report-made all the more affecting by its stark, just-the-facts tone-responded magnificently to his situation, organizing underground support groups for the prisoners, smuggling out information, and even managing to escape in 1943. After the war, Pilecki secretly returned to his country to investigate the Soviet occupation. He was captured and executed in 1948, and accounts of his time in the death camp were suppressed until the collapse of the U.S.S.R four decades later. In 2006 Pilecki, one of the unsung heroes of the war, was awarded Poland's highest medal--Brian Bethune, Maclean's: June 22, 2012, "One man volunteered for Auschwitz, and now we have his story. . . Pilecki's report on Auschwitz, unpublishable for decades in Communist Poland and now translated into English under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer, is a historical document of the greatest importance." -- Timothy Snyder, Yale Professor, author of Bloodlands The New York Times Sunday Book Review, June 24, 2012, One man volunteered for Auschwitz, and now we have his story. . . Pilecki's report on Auschwitz, unpublishable for decades in Communist Poland and now translated into English under the title The Auschwitz Volunteer, is a historical document of the greatest importance., A shining example of heroism that transcends religion, race and time…This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Holocaust. - Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, An Allied hero who deserved to be remembered and celebrated. - Professor Norman Davies, historian and author (Vanished Kingdoms), Earthshaking. A book which I hope will be widely read. - Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Center for Strategic & International Studies , This remarkable book...may shock but will surely enlighten. Here is a portion of the Auschwitz story that needed to be told., This remarkable book...may shock but will surely enlighten. Here is a portion of the Auschwitz story that needed to be told. - Gerhard L. Weinberg, the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, internationally recognized authority on Nazi Germany, "In the summer of 1945, a Polish officer serving with British forces in Italy wrote an extraordinary memoir. In 1940, as the London-based Polish government-in-exile puzzled over what might be going on in the still little-known camp the Nazis had set up in Auschwitz. . . Pilecki, as revealed in his 1945 report-made all the more affecting by its stark, just-the-facts tone-responded magnificently to his situation, organizing underground support groups for the prisoners, smuggling out information, and even managing to escape in 1943. . .In 2006 Pilecki, one of the unsung heroes of the war, was awarded Poland's highest medal." -- Brian Bethune, Maclean's, June 22, 2012, A shining example of heroism that transcends religion, race and time...This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Holocaust.
