The Story of a Secret State - by Jan Karsky Boston 1944 - first edition. Copy with dedication and signature of the author Jan Karski - the man who tried to stop the Holocaust, dated: March 3, 1951.
Dr. Jan Karski [1914-2000] a Polish underground fighter during WW2, who made heroic efforts to report to the allies regarding the annihilation of the Jews in the holocaust. During the war outbreak Karski was drafted to the Polish Army, and taken as a prisoner of war by the Red Army. He escaped the POW camp, and returned to the Generalgouvernement (German occupation zone in Poland). There he joined the Polish underground movement " Armia Krajowa". During that time Karski ran a number of secret errands between France, Britain, the Netherlands and Poland. Captured in Slovakia by the Gestapo in June 1940 and suffered from torture. Karski managed to escape from prison in Nowy Sącz (Tsanz) thanks to a bold operation by the Polish underground. At the end of 1942 Karski sneaked twice into the Warsaw Ghetto, where he met with two of the Jewish leaders – Menachem Kirschenbaum and Leon Feiner. His aim was to inspect closely the events in the ghetto during that time, and expose to the world the dreadful events. The Jews for their part asked him to tell the nations about their fate, and to act for their rescue. As part of his heroic actions, while dressed as a guard, Karski sneaked into the camp which he identified as Belzec, although nowadays it is thought to have been either one of the transit or sorting camps, most likely one named "Izbica Lubelska". In November 1942 Karski escaped westwards, and continued with his aim to expose the annihilation of the Jews. At first he stayed in Britain where he met with foreign Minister Anthony Eden. Thereafter he arrived in the US in July 1943 and met in person with US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also met with many other leaders in the United States - Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch and Stephen Samuel Wise. Many of those whom he spoke with did not believe him, or considered his testimony exaggerated, and regarded him as a propagandist of the Polish underground.
The book before us "The Story of a Secret State", published in 1944 before the war came to an end, is the first historical publication written and published by a member of the Polish underground operating under the auspices of the exiled polish government in London, and is also the first essay by Karski depicting his happenings during the years of war – his underground actions, his capture by Gestapo, the escape from German prison, his stay in Warsaw Ghetto followed by the stay in the Concentration camp, the escape westwards, and his conversations to the closed ears of the leaders of the western states in the attempt to report about the mass scale of the destruction of the Jews.
After the war, Karski avoided returning to Poland because the communist government there persecuted members of the "Home Army." He became a naturalized citizen of the United States and began studying at Georgetown University, where he received a doctorate in 1952. He taught subjects related to Eastern Europe at this university for 40 years and was one of its important professors. In 1954, he received US citizenship. Karski married a Holocaust survivor named Pola Nirenska. In 1977, he was interviewed for the filming of Claude Lanzmann's documentary "Shoah." He also published a research paper in 1985 entitled "The Great Powers and Poland." A biography about him by researchers Thomas Wood and Stanisław Krajewski was published in 1994 called "Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust."
After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, Karski was rehabilitated in his homeland. He was awarded with civilian and military honors.
In 2000, shortly before his death, he founded the "Jan Karski Eagle Award for Humanity" in service of humanity.
An emotional interview with Jan Karski that took place after the war, in which he reveals details from his experiences during the war see here .
[6], 391 p. 20cm. good condition.
