Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World (Penguin Modern Classics) Paperback – 25 April 2019

No-one had told me about Karski's book, and I am surprised it isn't better known. For one thing, it sheds some light on the circumstances in which news of the atrocities perpetrated against European Jews was conveyed from wartime Poland to unbelievers in London and Washington. For another, although it was dictated in Polish and translated into English at great speed in a Manhattan hotel room, it is well-constructed and beautifully written - as good in its own way as such 1930s and 1940s classics as Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and Koestler's Scum of the Earth, Primo Levi's If this is a man. Karski was an officer in the Polish Army in 1939, and he entered the underground where, whatever he tells you about his own prudence, he proved to be stubbornly and ridiculously courageous He took charge of propaganda - at his instigation Poles got to read uncensored news compiled in cellars from radio reports and printed on hand-cranked presses. Karski is a literalist, a patriot and a consummate observer. He was told by his underground superiors to be objective, and so he proved to be.What could seem detached or even cold in other, easier contexts is the way he is able to make sense of ultimate atrocity. He dresses as a Ukrainian guard to observe the killing of trainloads of Jews in quicklime, and he notes not his own distress but the prostration as a consequence of nausea that he experienced.(His dispatch describing this event was read out on the BBC by the writer Arthur Koestler; Karski was the first person to witness the genocide and speak about it.) He doesn't tell you what he felt in Washington but those interested should look at Claude Lanzmann's filmed interview The Karski Report in which he describes how the Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter told him that he didn't think Karski was lying but nonetheless couldn't believe him. There are books that you are told you must read because they are great literature. Karski's is among those which one must read not merely because they told the truth, but because they remind the reader that it is possible to do so, and that, maybe not in the way that one might have hoped or expected, telling the truth does make a difference.

I have heard stories of the deprivations and depravities incurred on the Jews in Poland during WW2, but rarely as such moving first-hand testimony. Indeed my own father-in-law was escaping on a train crossing the Polish - German border on the very night that Karski was conscripted. Karski's remarkable account must be read in the knowledge that the war was still underway when published. For this understandable reason, there are important facts and events missing, some of which are helpfully appended to this edition. I was deeply moved by his account, not least his ability to report with evident feeling and passion, yet remain absolutely objective when faced with sights so appalling. His description of the loading of death-camp cattle trucks with 140 souls in each and the subsequent carnage is something that I will never forget. He clearly understood that objective personal testimony, not raw emotion, was vital in ensuring his credibility.Karski's account finishes rather abruptly with the delivery of his message to the Allies. Being the consummate diplomat, he plays down, or simply does not report, the pitiful responses from the Western leaders to the plight of the Polish people and the Jews in particular. For example, during his 1943 interview in Washington with Justice of the US Supreme Court Frankfurter, himself Jewish, he was told "Mr. Karski, I want to be totally frank. I am unable to believe you. I did not say [you are] lying. I am just unable to believe what [you] told me."Jan Karski was honoured as a "Righteous among the Nations" at Yad Vashem on 2nd June 1982.This book sold 400,000 copies in the US alone when published there in 1944. It is remarkable that it has not been published in the UK until now.A remarkable story, told by a remarkable man.

Jan Karski appears to deserve all the awards of praise that he received during his exciting and often tragic life. This book is quite remarkable and is written with a degree of objectivity that probably could only come from a great journalist or a diplomat. Yet the book reads like a thriller while simultaneously being highly instructive and appearing to impart the atmosphere of a martyrized country under Nazi domination. The only aspect somewhat odd to the modern eye is the way that he quotes dialogue and conversations as if they were recorded. I suspect that Mr Karski had a most excellent memory, but was it really photographic? Despite this I would highly recommend this book.

O livro chegou na data prevista, bem acondicionado e em perfeito estado.

I hung my head in shame as I read this book.i live in a world where people were brutalized and tortured .where families were ripped apart .children torn apart from parents .elderly murdered,youngsters tortured.And yet the free world waited for years to deal with this with such a deliberate attitude.Anyways they intervened too late.Millions were eradicated.No amount of museums in their honor can ever justify this horrific oversightAt the very best today it is half a page in history text books....Thanks to Amazon we have access to these booksI have never seen these books in bookshops of yesteryearEver grateful for online book shopping

I found the clarity of Karski"s writing astounding given the drama and pathos of his report. Absorbing, disturbing, sad and true.

This is a fascinating insight into the workings of the Polish underground during the second world war. The reader discovers that the underground was more than a resistance organization. It was a secret state with all of the organs of government. Karski claims,"In Poland alone of all the occupied countries, there never appeared anything remotely resembling a legal or pseudo-legal body composed of Poles collaborating with the Germans."Instead there was a clandestine body operating in secrecy.The book is also a story of adventure and bravery. One brave jump from a train altered the course of the war for Karski. The description of his arrest and torture will keep the pages turning.The writing style is very fine. Here's an example,"But what shocked me most at Radom were not merely the living conditions and brutality of our captors, but the apparently unmotivated character of both. These seemed to be occasioned not by any desire to inculcate discipline or obedience or to forestall attempts at escape. Nor were they designed merely to humiliate, degrade, and weaken us, though this was, in some degree, what was accomplished. It seemed rather all to be part of some unheard of, brutal code to which the guards and officials adhered with casual conformity for its own sake."It's difficult to believe that Karski wrote this in English himself. Perhaps he's another Conrad.And of course, Karski was a witness to history. His visit to the Warsaw ghetto is haunting,"No, for these bodies were still moving, were indeed often violently agitated. These were still living people, if you could call them such. For apart from their skin, eyes, and voice, there was nothing human left in these palpitating figures. Everywhere there was hunger, misery, the atrocious stench of decomposing bodies, the pitiful moans of dying children, the desperate cries and gasps of a people struggling for life against impossible odds."Finally, the footnotes to the book are packed with historical detail. They provide extensive information on the characters mentioned in the book and the historical background.Highly recommended.

Unter den vielen Titeln, die ich zum Thema Widerstand gelesen habe, ist dieses Buch eins der spannendsten. Ich habe es in wenigen Tagen durchgelesen. Sein Inhalt verpflichtet mich zu tiefer Dankbarkeit und Hochachtung gegenüber dem polnischen Volk, unseren Nachbarn.Karski beschreibt viele Aktionen und die durchorganisierte Struktur des polnischen Widerstands während der Nazi-Okkupation, analysiert u.a. eigene Fehler, die ihn in die Hände der Gestapo fallen lassen. Bei allem Pech, das einem passieren kann, ist die Botschaft ermutigend: Wenn Menschen wirklich entschlossen sind und das Menschenrecht auf ihrer Seite haben, kann sie niemand aufhalten. Ihre Handlungen werden ihnen trotz einiger Rückschläge gelingen. Oder anders ausgedrückt: Es gibt Situationen, in denen es höhere Werte gibt als das eigene Leben.Jan Karski hat sich tatsächlich in ein Konzentrationslager einschmuggeln lassen, um der Welt Beweise für die Existenz dieser Lager erbringen zu können. Trotzdem wird ihm in den Regierungskreisen der USA und Großbritanniens eher Skepsis entgegengebracht; eine direkte Auswirkung hatte sein Zeugnis zumindest öffentlich nicht, was einen noch im Nachhinein zur Verzweiflung bringt. Wenn nur eins der etwa fünfzig Attentatsversuche gegen den "Führer" erfolgreich gewesen wäre, hätte es Millionen Menschen gerettet, auch eine Bombardierung der Eisenbahnverbindungen in die Vernichtungslager fand nicht statt.Nur in einem Punkt, der für den Hauptteil seines Berichtes eher unwichtig ist, würde ich dem Autor widersprechen:Er sieht überall nur Deutsche, die entweder das nachschwätzen, was die offizielle Propaganda behauptet, oder stumme Zuschauer sind, die nicht eingreifen. Er glaubt nicht, dass es überhaupt einen deutschen Widerstand gibt. Das sehen Historiker sicherlich anders, auch wenn der interne Widerstand nicht erfolgreich war, die Deutschen den Faschismus nicht besiegt haben. Neben den Polen, Griechen und vielen anderen haben gerade die Russen das höchste Opfer (20 Mio. Tote) entrichtet. Die Entschiedenheit und Ruhe von Karski und seiner Mitstreiter haben mich sehr berührt, er bestärkt mich in dem Glauben an den Menschen, der einem heute leicht verloren gehen kann.