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. Polish screenwriter, director and actor Marek Probosz starred in a film about Pilecki. He will read from the book with multimedia accompaniment.

Recognized by the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence Finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award of the Independent Book Publishers Association.

The only man who volunteered to be captured and imprisoned in Auschwitz to bring out the story of the camp.

“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

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

 

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, the Polish Consulate General in Los Angeles, Hillel at UCLA, and St. Alban’s Church in Westwood.