Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #1 :Bite #10,Heart of the Crowd

The Secret State Series #1

STORY OF A SECRET STATE

Story of a Secret State stands as one of the most poignant and inspiring memoirs of World War II and the Holocaust. With elements of a spy thriller, documenting his experiences in the Polish Underground, and as one of the first accounts of the systematic slaughter of the Jews by the German Nazis, this volume is a remarkable testimony of one man's courage and a nation's struggle for resistance against overwhelming oppression.
Karski was a brilliant young diplomat when war broke out in 1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland. Taken prisoner by the Soviet Red Army, which had simultaneously invaded from the East, Karski narrowly escaped the subsequent Katyn Forest Massacre. He became a member of the Polish Underground, the most significant resistance movement in occupied Europe, acting as a liaison and courier between the Underground and the Polish government-in-exile. He was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and entered the Nazi's Izbica transit camp disguised as a guard, witnessing first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust.
Karski's courage and testimony, conveyed in a breathtaking manner in Story of a Secret State, offer the narrative of one of the world's greatest eyewitnesses and an inspiration for all of humanity, emboldening each of us to rise to the challenge of standing up against evil and for human rights. This definitive edition—which includes a foreword by Madeleine Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.
Jan Karski was born in ód , Poland, in 1914. 
He received a degree in Law and Diplomatic Science in 1935 and served as a liaison officer of the Polish Underground during World War II. He carried the first eyewitness report of the Holocaust to a mostly unbelieving West, meeting with President Roosevelt in 1943 to plead for Allied intervention. Story of a Secret State was originally published in 1944, becoming a bestseller and Book of the Month Club selection. After the war, Karski earned his PhD at Georgetown University, where he served as a distinguished professor in the School of Foreign Service for forty years. He died in Washington, DC, in 2000. Karski has been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. In 2012, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by our President.
"His wartime saga as officer, as Soviet prisoner, as escapee, in the hands of the Gestapo, and as a Polish Underground activist and courier, is beyond remarkable. In a world today where words such as 'courage' and 'heroism' have been so overused—applied freely from sports to entertainment to politics as to be rendered practically meaningless—Jan Karski was the rare human being who embodied both."

"In the words of James Russell Lowell's rousing hymn:

'Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.' Perhaps more than most of us, Jan Karski faced such a choice in the starkest of possible terms, and made his decision as courageously as one could. . . . Jan Karski was a patriot and a truth teller; may his words always be read and his legacy never forgotten.
"Secret State is an indispensable and compelling historical document of World War II and the Holocaust, written by a supremely courageous humanitarian."

The Secret State Series #1:

PEARL LEONA STURGIS·SUNDAY, JULY 9, 2017

The Underground by Jan Karski 1944 Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:

Pro Script: “I do not pretend to have given an exhaustive picture of the Polish Underground, its organization, and its activities. Because of our methods I believe there is no one today who could give an all embracing recital. This could be possible only after the war with the aid of information yet to be gathered and checked. This is purely a personal story, my story. I have tried to recall everything I have experienced, to tell about my own activities and to recount the deeds of all those with whom I had actual contact. 

Poland’s underground State, to which I belonged, was under the authority of the Polish Government in London. I know that, besides this organization, there were other elements carrying on their activities under the direction or the influence of Moscow. Because of my sincere intention to describe only my personal experience, their activities could not possibly be included in my story. Being the First active Member of the Polish Underground in the fortunate position to publish some aspects of its story, I hope that it will encourage others to relate their experiences, and that out of such narratives the free people all over the world will be able to form an objective opinion as to how the Polish people reacted during the years of German concept. Jan Karski:

 

Daily Bites of The Secret State  Series #1:

“The Underground”

Bite #10,Heart of the Crowd:

by Jan Karski:

As we walked along in the dusk I continued to cast about for a favorable opportunity to escape, without success. By now my imagination had been so aroused that I thought I could see shadows slipping from the lines everywhere. Some of these elusive figures were real but in the deepening darkness I could be sure of nothing. The rumbling tanks: the glinting of the guns in the moonlight, and the strain of peering into the shadows all contrived to make me feel as a participant in some eery game. 

Each time I thought I saw a successful escape I felt a secret thrill of triumph and glanced at the guard as though I were involved in a clever plot of which he was the sole victim. When I saw the railroad station looming toward us, a short distance away, I had to acknowledge that whatever the fate of these poor devils were destined to be, I had to share it. In the resigned faces of the people of Tarnopol I felt a tragic knowledge I could not quite understand but it touched me deeply. They knew the Polish State was crushed. 

They knew more accurately what was happening than all the intelligence in Warsaw! They knew more than all my friends with connections. They knew what was happening more than my highly educated fellow officers. Poland had fallen. They crowded close to our lines to help Poland’s sons who would still struggle to help her to escape. As we neared to the end of our puzzled march I saw that some of the women were conspicuously carrying civilian garments.

One audacious middle aged woman actually handed a coat to a soldier who had contrived to get past the guards. Watching her, a sob of pride and admiration welled up in my heart. Reaching in my wallet I took out my money and papers and a gold watch my father had given me. Facing forward to avert suspicion I tossed them with my left hand into the crowd. I would probably have no further use for them and it was little enough to do for the good people of Tarnopol. I kept some money, a ring, and a gold medallion. 

An instant later we were crowding into the dim shabby railroad station. Once inside the station the urge to escape and the possibilities of doing so, vanished simultaneously with the buoyancy of spirit that kept us erect in the march through Tarnopol. In the foul smelling and fearfully overcrowded station we felt the full weight of the physical fatigue and the defeated hope of the past few weeks.

As soon as they entered the room the men wearily sat or layed down on benches, steps, or even the bare floor. They dropped into exhausted slumber. I sat down on the floor and propped my head against a bench on which three other officers were already snoring fitfully. I fell into a tired restless sleep.

(to be continued) ....

(To be continued ) 

Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #1 

Bite #11, Packed Like Sardines:

by Jan Karski 1944 :

“From The Secret State”

 #1) Introduction:

 #2) While Attending a Party:

 #3) Secret Assignment:

 #4) Fifteen days of Marching:

 #5) The Hammer and the Sickle:

 #6) surrendering to the Soviets: 

#7) Laying Down our Arms:

 #8) Prisoners of the Red Army: 

#9) Vanishing in the crowd:

 #10) Heart of the Crowd: 

#11) Packed Like Sardines: 

#12) Divergence between two Countries: 

#13) Marching to our Destination: 

#14) From Polish officer to Russian Slave: 

#15) Hazardous Possibilities:

#16) Exchanged and Escaped: 

#17) Under German Control: 

#18) Crossing over the Bridge: 

#19) Another Two Day Journey: 

#20) Insane Brutality: 

#21) Three Robust Men: 

#22) Transported for Forced Labor:

 #23) Now or Never: 

#24) To the Citizens of Poland: 

#25) Risking Escape: 

#26) Searching for Shelter: 

#27) The Polish Patriot: 

#28) Priceless Hospitality:

 #29) Shocking News: 

#30) No Longer a Poland 1944:

IN CASE YOU MISSED ONE OF THE SERIES

To be Continued in the Next Daily Bites of “The Secret State Series #1”

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