“Deportation to these camps is, in fact, a death sentence… Life in concentration camps such as Auschwitz is an endless nightmare of moral and physical torture. Prisoners are kept in the freezing cold for hours on end…” – Underground Poland Speaks – Manifesto to the Peoples of the World – The Polish Underground Speaks – A manifesto to the nations of the world – The first report on German crimes as they were unfolding, detailing mass deportations to death camps and the systematic persecution of the Jews. One of the earliest documents published by the Polish resistance in the West, as part of the efforts of the Polish government-in-exile in London to expose Nazi atrocities and garner international support. Foreword by P. J. Noel-Baker on the urgency of publicizing German atrocities before it is too late. Published by Victoria House Printing Co., London, 1941 – First English edition. Cover illustration by Lewitt-Him.
A manifesto (formal public declaration) titled “Somewhere in Poland”, addressed “To the Peoples of the World”, written by leaders of “the massed workers of the Polish nation”. It was formulated and adopted by a congress of delegates representing more than two thousand organized Polish groups living under Nazi occupation, who had united in an underground movement that raised the banner of resistance against the invader. This is one of the earliest known documented accounts containing detailed descriptions of the Holocaust of Polish Jewry, the establishment of ghettos, and the deportations to death camps in the early months. The authors of the manifesto risked death and torture to smuggle out the information presented here: “We may be sure that some, at least, of those who wrote it have already perished in a concentration camp or in their homes, ” the foreword reads.
The appeal was intended to inform the peoples of the world—on behalf of the Polish nation, the first to endure the Nazis’ brutal aggression—of what Adolf Hitler’s “New Order” would look like if he won the war, based on what had already taken place in Poland, and to expose the scale of Nazi cruelty in an effort to stir global resistance before it was too late. The writers list, one after another, the atrocities committed by the Nazis—reporting a massacre of some 10,000 Poles and adding: “Everyone knows of the mass executions in Wawer, Lukow, Czestochowa, Starachowice, Skarżysko, Inowrocław, Opoczno, Bochnia, in almost every town and city, and in thousands of villages across Poland. At least 150,000 men and women—or even more—were shot during the first year of the occupation. In one place, Palmiry, near Warsaw, 5,000 people were murdered and buried in ditches. In an effort to conceal the crime, those ditches were ploughed over and roads were built on top of them.”
The manifesto also details the brutal methods used by the Nazis in executions carried out following the occupation of Poland: “They were shot in the back with pistols, mowed down by machine-gun fire, tied together in helpless groups and slaughtered with hand grenades hurled at them—all of them vanished forever and no longer suffer for their homeland.” It is also here, for the first time, that the existence of death camps for mass murder is revealed: “But many more are dying a prolonged death in concentration camps, where hundreds of thousands of Polish civilians are wasting away in misery… Every day on the calendar that commemorates a historic event in Polish history marks new arrests, new deportations. Deportation to these camps is, in fact, a death sentence. When death comes—G-d have mercy—the murdered victim’s family receives a brief telegram or letter from the Gestapo and is asked to send seven marks as the price of the deceased’s ashes.” “Life in concentration camps such as Auschwitz is an endless nightmare of moral and physical torture. Prisoners are kept in the freezing cold for hours on end, clothed only in cotton overalls, or are forced to drill until they collapse. They are beaten for the slightest reason—or for no reason at all—simply to satisfy the sadistic urges of their guards. Dozens die each day in this way, as martyrs.” (These lines were written in February 1941!).
The authors describe the ever-increasing discriminatory regulations issued against Jews, and their forced deportation to labor camps: “One day Jews are confined to ghettos, reduced to starving serfs, forced to carry out meaningless labor. The next day, Poles are pushed into separate districts or deported to forced labor in Germany. Nearly 200,000 Jews are engaged in forced labor in Poland, and almost 500,000 Poles have been abducted and deported to work in Germany.” They also emphasize how easily the Germans execute those who violate such decrees: “Even reading or possessing an illegal newspaper may mean immediate death by firing squad or imprisonment and martyrdom in a concentration camp…”.
In addition, the authors extensively detail the expulsion of Polish civilians, the closure of factories, looting of shops, seizure of Polish goods, the transformation of the Polish nation into “German slaves, ” the destruction of Polish culture, and more.
The manifesto is illustrated throughout with powerful photographs, including: Nazi soldiers tormenting a Jew; victims of Nazi terror; an execution by gunshot; women and girls being led to execution in a forest; Nazis burning a village that aided Polish guerrillas; the mass deportation of a Polish town’s population; the Warsaw Ghetto wall; Poles awaiting execution, forced to bury the bodies of their shot comrades; a Polish playground bearing the sign: “Playground for German children only!”; a sign prohibiting Poles from entering a Polish church in Poznań: “Germans only”, and more. On page 4, a photograph appears of the original Polish edition, issued in February of the same year.
The manifesto concludes with an urgent warning that the fate of every European country conquered by the Nazis will be the same, and calls on the nations of the world to do all in their power to destroy the Nazi monster: “We in Poland are a living example of what this ‘New Order’ of international fascism looks like and how it is formed… We appeal to you, the peoples of the world, who have so far managed to avoid the greatest tragedy in human history… Look at our country, which is nothing more than a cemetery. This is the fate of all conquered nations. We must go back to the most remote and darkest ages to find comparable examples of the physical destruction of millions, of the physical and moral martyrdom now inflicted by the Nazi invaders upon millions of human beings… We are deeply convinced that the enemy will ultimately be defeated. At the first opportunity, the conquered nations will rise up and deal a fatal blow to the invader. Therefore, we address all the peoples of Europe and the world in the name of the Polish people, who fight and labor in the shadows of conspiracy… No one can afford to stand aside. The working peoples of the world must unite in this struggle against modern tyranny, under the slogan: ‘For your freedom and ours.’”
The booklet was distributed to both occupied and free nations through the channels of the revolutionary underground movement. Presented here is the first English edition, published in London.
Rare. Only two copies listed in the global library catalog WorldCat—one in a British library and one in a Polish library.
15 [1] pages. Light stains on the first few leaves. Very good condition.
