The Secret State Series #5
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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.
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."
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."
"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 #5:
The Secret State #5 “Forbidden to Die”
by Jan Karski: Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:
by Jan Karski: Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:
The Secret state Series 1: “The Underground” by Jan Karski:
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 #5:
“Forbidden to Die”
Bites #26-30,Path to Freedom:
#27) Now or Never:
#28) Freedom is not Free:
#29) Hearts of Gold:
#30) A Free Man Once Again:
by Jan Karski :
The one thing humanly impossible for me was to relax and not to worry. A thousand doubts rose to my mind. I thought feverishly of numeral precautions. Most of my time I spent in scrutinizing the guard who returned to his post shortly after the doctor left. Could he have merely attempted to accept the bribe to set a trap for my comrades? He had appeared to be so thoroughly indoctrinated with the Nazi code. then I did feel reassured though when he turned to me. There was a faint smirk of greed and self satisfaction upon his lips, which I interpreted to mean he was content with his pickings and impatient to begin indulging himself in the wealth he had been promised. Of course, he did not realize that the money he would receive, and the forged papers that he had been provided with, did not mean that a life of ease was within his grasp. His happy dreams of leisure on his handsome estate would soon go up in smoke. the underground had bribed hundreds like him before and turned the tables by exploiting them, as it was termed in underground language, forcing them to cooperate in other schemes (rescuing prisoners) by holding over their heads the constant threat of exposing them to the Gestapo. sometime before midnight the guard pretended to drop into a deep sleep. Precisely as the church clock tolled at the hour of midnight, the figure of the doctor appeared at the doorway. He drew a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and moved on. An encouraging medley of snores from the guard and my roommates issued from all sides.
#27) Now or Never:
I slid out of bed, took off the hospital pajamas and stuffed them under the cover. i transferred the cyanide pill to my hand from my thigh, ready to swallow it in case of sudden danger. completely naked, I padded down to the first floor. slightly bewildered I studied the dimly lit corridor. My sense of direction had vanished momentarily. Since there were two similar stair cases I could not tell which led to the back or the front of the hospital. In this strange dilemma I felt a draft of cold air on my back. I reasoned that a window had been left open for me, as whoever had engineered the scheme would realize that I would be unable to open one unaided. I headed in the direction of the open window. My heart leaped when I saw the rose which had been blown from the sill to the floor. I stared for a moment at the inky blackness below, and then, taking a deep breath, I climbed over the sill and jumped, still clutching the little pill in my hand. As I hit the ground and began to totter, a pair of strong arms caught me and held me erect. The suddenness of the embrace frightened me. For a moment I thought I was in the hands of the Gestapo. My relief was immense. I knew I didn’t need the pill when one of them slipped a coat over me and handed me a pair of trousers. “Hurry!” he commanded! “We haven’t a moment to lose! Run like the devil!” Like myself, they were also barefooted. We ran across the lawn till we reached the fence.
#28 Freedom is not Free:
At last, I was outside the hospital and ready to cross the fence with two underground workers. I had no idea who my rescuers were or to what organization they belonged. We paused at the fence, panting from the long run. One of the men spoke: “It will be impossible to get you over the fence without help. this is what we will do. I will climb over the fence and you climb on my friend’s back and jump over the fence and I will catch you.” We performed the operation as he directed. When we were all three together we continued to run over a muddy field and across two paved roads toward a row of protecting trees. My bare feet began to smart and pain. My ribs ached and I felt a burning sensation in my lungs. Finally I stumbled, pitched forward on the ground grasping for breath. “I can’t make it” I said. “I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble but I have to have some rest.” They did not answer me. One of the men, a tall, burly individual, reached down and flung me over his shoulder as though I was a bundle of clothes. I must have lost a great deal of weight for he carried me without the slightest stagger into the woods. When we were well within the comforting darkness one of the men gave an audible sigh of relief. “I guess we can rest here a bit?” he suggested to the man on whose shoulders I hung limply. The man dropped me on a mound of earth under a tree. I leaned back on the tree trying to recover my breath and bearings.
#29) Hearts of Gold:
After a short rest the two men who rescued me stood up. The one who carried me asked me if I was able to walk now. “I ...I don’t think so” I said. “Have we far to go?” Without answering he bent down a second time and flipped me over his shoulder. They walked, in a steady methodical pace, for about fifteen minutes and then emerged from the woods onto, what looked like, a broad open field. The moon, which had been illuminating a river, revealed a faint silvery glitter of water before us. The two men stopped and my carrier set me on his feet. The other man placed his fingers in his mouth and emitted a thin piercing whistle. From behind the bushes, to our right, two men stepped forward. They were two of the hardest, tough looking individuals I had ever encountered. One of them held a revolver in his hand and the other one held a long knife which glittered evily in the moonlight. As they approached they loosed in measured controlled tones, a series of hair raising curses directed at the Germans. From time to time they kept remarking about (so called) intellectuals. They held a brief conference with my rescuers and then took up their positions as guards. The husky one, I assumed to be the leader, beckoned me to follow him along the reedy, marshy ground beside of the river. We churned through the slush until a man, who had apparently been lying prone, jumped up and confronted us. His face was split in a wide grin. “Good Evening, Gentlemen.” he greeted. I recognized him immediately. His name was Staszek. I first met him in Cracow. He was a young socialist. I never suspected him to be so deep in the underground. For this reason I was surprised to see him, and even more astonished to realize that the “devil may care” attitude was a convenient cloak to hide the courage necessary for the important work he was doing.
#30) Free Man Once Again:
Staszek slapped me on the shoulder, good humoredly. “Congratulations Karski, on your divorce from the Gestapo! I bet that was one wedding you didn’t care for, eh?” ---- “No! I can’t say I enjoyed it. Where do we go from here?” “Follow me, you heroes” he chirped. He raised his hands like a magician on a stage and then proceeded to draw out a canoe, which had been clearly concealed in thick underbrush. “Presto!” he announced. We boarded the canoe and he handed the paddle to the man who had carried me on his shoulders. We headed for the opposite bank of the river against a heavy current. The canoe rocked violently, tilting out of the water at a dangerous angle. At one point it slanted so far over on its side that I lost my balance and plunged into the water. the big guy put down his paddle and steadied the canoe. Then he hauled me back in as if I had been a fish. We struggled with the tricky tide for more than an hour, while I lay prone on the bottom of the canoe, soaked to the skin. When we reached the shore we waded in through a couple inches of water and they concealed the canoe again. I slung my arms around and stamped up and down to restore a little warmth to my body. We began talking, Staszek leading the way. “Well,” he said. “It won’t be long before you are in your new home.” We cut through a dense woods and across a field of wheat and ended up at a barn. “The end of the line!” my humorous friend announced. “We must leave you here. Your host will pay his respects tomorrow.” I expressed my gratitude to all of them. “Don’t be too grateful to us. It was really the polish people who saved you.” We bid farewell and I climbed the loft and sank wearily into the soft hay. I was a free man once again. (end of series 5)
(to be continued) ....
(To be continued )
Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #6
“Hunted:”
#2) Three Days of Confinement:
#3) Breach of Discipline:
#4) A Touch of Underground Measles:
#5) The Farmer’s Daughter:
#3) Breach of Discipline:
#4) A Touch of Underground Measles:
#5) The Farmer’s Daughter:
by Jan Karski 1944 :
“From The Secret State”
#1) Attempting Suicide:
#2) In a Slovakian Hospital:
#3) Unwanted Blood Transfusion:
#4) Planning a Second attempt to Die:
#5) Mingled Emotions:
#6) France Surrenders:
#7: Deep Despair:
#8) Germany’s Fake News:
#9) Forced to Leave the Hospital:
#10) Back in the Prison Cell:
#11) Beloved Mother Land:
#12) The Kind Slovakian Guard:
#13) When Death is a Privilege:
#14) Help from the Enemy:
#15) Back in the Hospital:
#16) The Message in the Roses:
#17) The Deceivers are Deceived:
#18) Back to Where I Started:
#19) Beloved Mother Land:
#20) Doctor’s Orders:
#21) Requesting a Priest:
#22) Risking Everything:
#23) A Small Break Through:
#24) A Taste of Liberty:
#25) A Feeling of Security:
#26) Path to Freedom:
#27) Now or Never:
#28) Freedom is not Free:
#29) Hearts of Gold:
#30) A Free Man Once Again:
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