The Secret State Series #7
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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.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 #7:
The Secret State #7 “Retribution”
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
by Jan Karski: Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
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 #7:
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
“Retribution”
Bites #16-20,The Printing Press Invasion:
#17) The Printing Press Invasions:
#18) The Three System of Selling:
#19) The Lord’s Prayer of the Polish Underground:
#20) Our Daily Bread:
#18) The Three System of Selling:
#19) The Lord’s Prayer of the Polish Underground:
#20) Our Daily Bread:
by Jan Karski :
Here is a report taken directly from a Warsaw underground paper. “The day before yesterday, May 25th, four of our fellow newspaper men were busy writing and setting their papers in the apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Bruehl, Lawoska Street, Warsaw. Earlier in the day two Gestapo men came to the apartment house and hid in the open top laundry room where they could watch the door entrance. Around midnight one of the Gestapo men rang the bell. One of the newspaper men opened the door and the Germans entered the door of the lobby in the apartment building. They ordered our men to stand against the wall with their arms raised. One of the Gestapo men went to the printing room. There, Leon Waclowski, the well known writer and former editor of one of our papers, took from his sleeve a hidden revolver and shot the German, killing him with one shot. The other gestapo man shot three times at one standing against the wall. Killed him instantly and ran away screaming for help. The three remaining left the house quietly. Leon Waclowski joined our staff today. We are proud to print his first article. Unhappily, the printing set in the home of the Bruehl’s was lost. Yesterday the Gestapo arrested all inhabitants in the apartment building on the Lawoska Street in Warsaw.
#17) The Printing Press Invasions:
“On July 4th a villa on a fashionable street at Czermiakowi, one of the residential sections of Warsaw, was surrounded by the Gestapo and SS Black guards armed with machine guns. The house sheltered one of our printing shops which had to be moved from the Makatow (another residential section) because it was apparent that the editors and printers were being watched by the Gestapo. When knocking at the door brought no response the police threw hand grenades through the windows, blasted the doors, and fired inside several times from their machine guns. Two of the underground men were killed and 2 women were seriously wounded and died soon after in the hospital. A few days later the owner of the building, Mr. Michal Kruk, his wife and two sons, 15 and 17 years old, as well as all of his tenants in two neighboring houses, were arrested and subsequently shot. This case alone caused 83 persons their lives. “ So stated this news report. So we learned much from the experience of Stanislaw Puludski,s room mate and co editor, printer, and circulation manager under the Tzarist Regime and the President of Poland in 1922. He is the creator of the three system underground selling of our newspapers. This system was used exclusively by us.
#18) The Three System of Selling:
We learned much from the Three System Selling created by Pilsudski’s co editor, Stanislow Wojciechowski, under the German occupation in 1922. Every man engaged in the news circulation underground job knew only one man back and one man ahead. He knew only one man who delivered to him at a secretly fixed place and one man who took the papers from him in another town. When a paper carrier was discovered by the Gestapo, as others had been years before by the Tzarist Okhrana, and submitted to the third degree hearings in the murder cellars by Himler’s men, he could give only two names. He did not know any more names. This system only worked through wholesale circulation. With the Hawkers every kind of ruse was practiced. News boys on the street of Warsaw and Cracow sold the German local papers in Poznan or Adolph Hitler’s Beobechter in every small and large Polish city. No Polish citizen would buy these papers unless the boy smiled at them and said: “Today you have extraordinary news about German victories.” and hands over a copy before asking them to buy it. Then the passer by would know the paper was stuffed between the pages of the German dispatches describing incredible success. There the buyer would find the underground news. A butcher would say to a woman buying meat: “Put it on ice” which was code for underground news hidden in the wrapper. Unusual systems sometimes went right into the mailboxes. Sometimes the newspapers were hidden under plates in restaurants. When the Gestapo caught them they were shot and most likely, all in the restaurant or involved in any way were arrested.
#19) The Lord’s Prayer of the Polish Underground:
Never before the war did I understand what an influence poetry had on people fighting for an ideal. There was no underground paper which did not contain some poetry verse of classics or modern day poets. The underground press was not only the military and political mouthpiece but it was also the medium for culture and religion. I kept one copy of the following article which I dare call the modern version of the Lord’s Prayer. it is a bloody dripping melancholy and passionate version of the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father who art in Heaven, look upon the martyred land of Poland. Hallowed be Thy Name, in the days of our increased despair and in these days of our powerless silence. Thy Kingdom come. We pray everyday Thy Kingdom will come throughout Poland and may in liberty and sunshine, Thy Word of peace and love be fulfilled. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, yet it can not be Thy will to have bloody murder rule the world. May it be Thy will that humid prison cells stay empty---that forest pits cease being filled with corpses---that the will of Satan incarnate in man stop its whiz of terror over our heads. Thy will be done in Heaven and in the air bring us light and warmth instead of bombs and fear. Let airplanes be messengers of happiness and not of death. Thy will be done on earth, Lord. Look at our Land covered with graves and lighten the paths of our sons, brethren, and fathers of the Polish soldiers, fighting their way back to Poland. Let the sea return the drowned; the waste spaces of land; the buried ones; the sands of the desert and the snows of Siberia. At least give us back the bodies of those we loved.
Our daily bread is a toil beyond any endurance. It is wandering and migrating and death in dungeons; death that comes from the guns of the firing squads; from torture in camps; death from starvation and death on the battle field. It is the torment of silence while our throats are choking with silent screams of pain. Our daily bread is a forced clenching of fists and gritting of teeth in the hour that cries for bloody revenge. To this daily bread of ours, O Lord, add force of endurance, patience, and will power, that we be silent lest we burst out before the hour of destiny rings (freedom). Forgive us our trespasses lest we be too weak to crush the beast. Strengthen our arms lest we tremble in the hour of revenge. They have sinned against Thee, O Lord. They have trespassed against Thine Eternal Laws. Do not let us sin against Thee with weakness as they sin with criminal debauch. Lead us not into temptation but let traitors and spies among us perish. Do not let money blind the hearts of the rich. Let us feed the hungry. Let Polish people recognize each other anywhere and at any hour. Let our mouths be silent while the torturer crushes our bones. Lead us not into temptation to forget tomorrow what we have suffered today. Deliver us from the Evil One and from the foes of our Polish Land. Save us, O Lord, from the paths and misery of deportation; from death on land, in the air and in the sea from treason of our own kind. Amen---Let us again be hosts of our own souls. Let us rest our hearts with the calm of the sea and the beauty of our mountains. Let us feed the starving crowds in Thy sunshine, O Lord. Let us establish justice in a righteous Poland. Amen---- Give us freedom, O Lord.” (this was reprinted in many papers. Thousands of boys and girls learned it by heart in secret schools.
(to be continued) ....
(To be continued )
Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #7
“Retribution”
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
#22) In Bold Print:
#23) Trees Hidden in the Forest:
#24) Hidden Archives:
#25) Tension at the Top:
by Jan Karski 1944 :
“From The Secret State”
#1) The Spirit of Resistance:
#2) Never Forgotten: Never Forgiven:
#3) Confiscating Children:
#4) Ten Commandments of Resistance:
#5) Ferocious Retaliation:
#6) Germicide the Germans:
#7) Testing True Patriots:
#8) Labor Camps:
#9) The ends Justifying the Means:
#10) War Bonds:
#11) The Secret Press:
#12) The Hidden Printing Machines:
#13) The Hidden Printing Machines:
#14) Secret Codes:
#15) From the Closest to the Roof tops:
#16) The Printing Press Invasion:
#17) The Printing Press Invasions:
#18) The Three System of Selling:
#19) The Lord’s Prayer of the Polish Underground:
#20) Our Daily Bread:
#21) Forbidden Books:
#22) In Bold Print:
#23) Trees Hidden in the Forest:
#24) Hidden Archives:
#25) Tension at the Top:
#26) The Liaison Woman:
#27) Unforgettable Tragedies:
#28) Hidden Archives:
#29) All’s Fair in Love and War:
#30) Losing to Win:
LibertygroupFreedom
https://redd.it/6y400k
“Retribution”
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slave
"FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY"
Stand Up To Government Corruption and Hypocrisy
NEVER FORGET THE SACRIFICES
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