Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #2 “No Longer a Poland”:Bite #3,The Grave of Unknown Soldiers

The Secret State Series #2

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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.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 #2:

The Secret State #2 “No Longer a Poland” by Jan Karski: Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:

PEARL LEONA STURGIS·TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017

The Secret state Series 1: “The Underground” by Jan Karski:

From chapter 19, page 231 last paragraph... There are four branches of the underground. An underground movement that anticipates only a brief life aims to produce chaos and to interfere with all the efforts of the usurping administration to establish order. It must operate at the highest possible tension at all times. It seeks the broadest possible reins of unified operations. It does not lay such a vital stress on secrecy and selectivity and hopes to succeed more by throwing the enemy into turmoil and confusion than my perfecting its own machinery. From 1939 onward a large military and political organizations had been functioning. The mid 1940’s brought news of the defeat of France and the knowledge that an allied victory would be a long time in coming.

Introduction: During my four and a half months absence while captured by the Russians and the the Germans, Conditions in Poland had changed considerably. The first few conversations made me conscious of the fact that the consolidation of the underground had practically been achieved. The movement had crystallized into the major organization: The coalition of the four largest political parties;

1) The Peasants 

2) The Socialist 

3) The Christian Labor

4) The Nationalist. 

This was the official military organization which had been recognized by the government as a military unit enjoying equal rights with the Polish Army in France. The most important need for that third party was to unite and agree on a chief delegate. The government was not interested in the personality of the candidate, nor his political affiliation, nor was he to become involved in party representation. The government would confirm the appointment of any individual who possessed authority and had the confidence of the population. 

(hmmmm? 1940 sounds familiar in 2017)

The Polish underground State to which Karski belonged was under the authority of the Polish government in London. He admitted that besides this organization there were other organizations carrying on their activities under the direct influence of Moscow. Being the first active member of the Polish Underground and in the fortunate position to publish some aspect of its story, he hoped that it would encourage others to relate their experiences and that out of such narratives the free people all over the world would be able to form an objective opinion as to how the Polish people reacted during the years of German conquest.

Daily Bites of The Secret State  Series #2:

“No Longer a Poland”

Bite #3,The Grave of Unknown Soldiers:

by Jan Karski :

Warsaw was a shocking ruin of its former self. The desolation that had fallen it exceeded in magnitude of my direct anticipation. The metropolis had disappeared; the cafes; the handsome buildings; the flowers; the cheerful noisy families. Warsaw had vanished as utterly as if it had never existed. I passed through street after street heaped with rubble and debris. The pavements were black and grimy. The inhabitants were worn, tired, and disconsolate. Graves for the dead who could not be taken to a cemetery were improvised everywhere. 

In parks, public squares, and even on the streets. At the corner of Marshall and Jerusalem Boulevard, in the heart of Warsaw, and close to the central railroad station, the pavement stones had been uprooted and a huge mass grave dug for unknown soldiers. It was covered with flowers and surrounded by burning candles. A crowd of mourners knelt beside it praying. Later I learned that this increasing vigil had been kept up since the burials had taken place three months ago. During the next few weeks I continued to see the mourners by the side of the grave from dawn to the curfew hours. 

Gradually the ceremonies that took place ceased to be only the devotional to the dead. They became tokens of political resistance as well. In December the Nazi Gaulitier for Warsaw, Moser, realized the significance the grave had assumed and ordered the bodies removed and buried in a cemetery. Even after this, mourners still came to this corner to pray, as if the spot had been hallowed by a presence the Nazi soldiers could not expel. 

(to be continued) ....

(To be continued ) 

Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #2 “No Longer a Poland”

Bite #4,Searching for my Sister:

by Jan Karski 1944 :

“From The Secret State”

Series 2

#1 Devastated Poland:

#2 Walking to Warsaw:

#3 The Grave of Unknown Soldiers: 

#4 Searching for my Sister:

#5 Rejected: 

#6 Drowning in Grief:

 #7 A Sad Departure:

 #8 Reuniting with a Friend:

 #9 Lessons from an Optimist:

 #10 Creating a new me:

 #11 Mapping a Plan:

 #12 Unknown Initiation:

 #13 The Bulky Letter:

 #14 Willfully Trapped:

 #15 Destined to a Strange World:

 #16 The Headquarters:

 #17 The Death of Dziepatowski:

 #18 Those Who Knuckled Under:

 #19 The German Raid in Warsaw:

 #20 A Separate Class of Victims:

 #21 My First Underground Mission:

 #22 Facing Hitler Banners:

 #23 De Germanizing Poznan:

 #24 Purge of Polish Population:

 #25 Forced From their own Home:

 #26 Uniting the Scattered Remnants:

 #27 My Second Mission: 

#28 An Official Coalition:

 #29 The Hunters and the Hunted:

 #30 Rescuing Jews from Germany:

IN CASE YOU MISSED ONE OF THE SERIES

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To be Continued in the Next Daily Bites of “The Secret State Series #2”

 

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