The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery - Hardcover

Pilecki, Captain Witold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1607720094 ISBN 13: 9781607720096

Publisher: Aquila Polonica, 2012

Synopsis

In 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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Soldier, Patriot...
Husband, Father...Hero

Captain Witold Pilecki—the only man who volunteered to be captured and imprisoned in Auschwitz to bring out the story of the camp.

September 1940. With calm deliberation, Polish Army officer Witold Pilecki walked into a Nazi German street round-up in Warsaw...and became Auschwitz Prisoner No. 4859.

Pilecki had volunteered for a potentially suicidal secret undercover mission for the Polish Underground: smuggle out intelligence about this new German concentration camp, and build a resistance organization among the prisoners.

Barely surviving nearly three years of hunger, disease and brutality, Pilecki accomplished his mission before escaping in April 1943.

His clandestine intelligence reports from Auschwitz, received by the Allies beginning in 1941, were among the earliest, including the full horrors of daily life inside the camp, the killing of Soviet soldiers taken as prisoners of war, the building of the gas chambers and mass extermination of the Jews brought to the camp.

Pilecki’s most comprehensive report on Auschwitz, written for his Polish Army superiors in 1945, is being published here in English for the first time.

“A shining example of heroism that transcends religion, race and time.”
— Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland

From the Back Cover:

A Featured Selection of the History Book Club®
A Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club® and the Military Book Club®

“Essential reading for anyone interested in the Holocaust.”
— Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland

“Remarkable revelations.”
— Publishers Weekly

“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

“An Allied hero who deserved to remembered and celebrated.”
— Norman Davies, FBA

About this edition

• Publisher: Aquila Polonica
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1607720094
• ISBN 13: 9781607720096
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 460