The Auschwitz Volunteer : Beyond Bravery

463 Pages·2012·14.892 MB·English

by  Witold Pilecki

NCLUDES BONUS VIDEOS
I
Winner Silver Award
Winner 2012 PROSE Award 2013 Benjamin Franklin Awards
Biography & Autobiography Autobiography/Memoir
THE AUSCHWITZ VOLUNTEER:
BEYOND BRAVERY

AQUILA
POLONICA®
T A
HE USCHWITZ
V
OLUNTEER
Beyond Bravery
byCaptain Witold Pilecki
Translated byJarek Garliński
AQUILA POLONICA (U.S.) LTD.
10850 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 300, Los Angeles, California 90024, U.S.A.
www.AquilaPolonica.com
Copyrights © 2012 Jaroslaw Garlinski and Aquila Polonica (U.S.) Ltd.
All rights reserved. The moral right of the author has been asserted. First published 2012.
Published in both hardcover and trade paperback 2012. eBook edition published 2014.
ISBN (Cloth): 978-1-60772-009-6
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ISBN (Trade Paperback): 978-1-60772-010-2
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-60772-014-0
Printed in the U.S.A.
Library of Congress Control Number 2012931262
eBook conversion: Sellbox.com
Acknowledgements:
Cover design, interior book design and maps in this Aquila Polonica edition are by
Stefan Mucha, and are reproduced with permission. Photographs and other illustrative ma-
terial are reproduced with permission, and are from the collections of the following:
The Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (“ABM”); Bundesarchiv; Jarek
Garliński (“JG”); Stefan Mucha (“SM”); Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (“NAC”); Zofia
Pilecka-Optułowicz and Andrzej Pilecki (“Pilecki Family”); The Polish Underground
Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust (“PUMST”); United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(“USHMM”); and Yad Vashem (“YV”).
The publishers wish to extend special thanks to Zofia Pilecka-Optułowicz and Andrzej Pilecki
for sharing their family photos for use in this book, and for the cooperation of the Instytut
Pamięci Narodowej (“IPN”) and the Muzeum Woli (“MW”) in providing access to such photos.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration is abbreviated as “NARA.”
The views or opinions expressed in this work, and the context in which the images are used,
do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of, nor imply approval or endorsement by, the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Publisher’s Note:
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
The game which I was now playing in
Auschwitz was dangerous. This sentence
does not really convey the reality; in fact,
I had gone far beyond what people in the real
world would consider dangerous...
— Captain Witold Pilecki
v
EUROPE 1939
© 2012 Aquila Polonica
vi
COntEnts
Chapter Page
Introduction by Norman Davies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Foreword by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi
of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Translator’s Introductory Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Selected Highlights from Pilecki’s 1945 Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix
List of Maps . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi
Historical Horizon
Captain Witold Pilecki: The Report, the Mission, the Man . . xxxiii
Captain Pilecki’s Covering Letter 
to Major General tadeusz Pełczyński . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Captain Witold Pilecki’s 1945 Auschwitz Report . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
COntEnts
Continued
Appendices
1 Glossary of English, German and Polish Terms
and Acronyms . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
2 German-Language Positions and Ranks at Auschwitz
Mentioned by Pilecki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
3 Index of People and Places Referred to by Pilecki
with Either a Code Number or Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
4 Chronology of Pilecki’s 1945 Report . . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . . 355
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Discussion Questions . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Praise . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
About the Author and Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Also From Aquila Polonica Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
viii
POLAnd–sEPtEMbER 1939
1st of september 1939 – German forces invade Poland from the north, west
and south.
17th of september 1939 – Soviet forces invade Poland from the east.
28th of september 1939 – Germany and the Soviet Union agree on the
demarcation line partitioning Poland
between them.
ix