The Secret State Series #10
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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.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. 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.
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."
"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 #10:
“How the War was Won” The Atlantic Charter: Declaration of War:
by Jan Karski:
Highlights and excerpts by PL Sturgis:
Reference Collier's Encyclopedia: Book 2 page 431:
Highlights PL Sturgis:
A Declaration was made in a joint statement issued August 14,1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, following a meeting held aboard the USS somewhere in the North Atlantic August 9 through 12. The charter sets forth the principles of the United States and the United Kingdom propose to shape their national policies ---DURING THE PERIOD OF WORLD WAR 2 AND THE POST WAR PERIOD!
The text of the statement follows:
The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, representing His majesty’s government in United Kingdom, being met together deem it right to make known certain in the national policies of their respective countries, on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
1. Our countries seek no increase in power: territorial or other:
2. Our country's desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the fully expressed wishes of the people concerned.
3. Our countries respect the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live. They wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been deprived of them.
4. Our countries will endeavor with due respect for their existing obligations to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.
5. All countries deserve to bring about the fullest collaboration in the economic field with the object of security for all improved labor standards, economic advancement, and social security.
6. After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny we hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the meaning of dwelling in safety within our own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all people in all Lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.
7. such a peace should enable all people to travel the high seas and oceans without hindrance.
8. Our countries believe that all nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea, or air, armaments continued to be employed by nations which threaten aggression outside of their frontiers, our countries believe, pending the system of general security, the destruction of such national regimes is essential. This will likewise aid and encourage all other people of their crushing burden of armaments. Declaration of War:
Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #10:
How the War was Won:
“The Atlantic Charter” by Roosevelt and Churchill”
Bites #1-5,Eyewitness to Mass Murder:
#2) Escaping the Death Camp:
#3) Recovering from a Living Nightmare:
#4) The Farewell Party:
#5) The Sacred Ceremony:
by Jan Karski :
Inside the Death Camp a few bodies remained that were not cruelly crushed into 46 train cars to be buried alive. 120 to each car held nearly 5,000 innocent Jewish men, women, and children. German policemen walked around at leisure with smoking guns into anything that, by a moan or motion, betrayed any excess of vitality. Soon not a single Jew was left alive in the camp. As I listened to the dwindling outcries in the train I thought of the destination toward which it was speeding. My informants had minutely described the entire journey. The train would travel about eighty miles and come to a halt in an empty barren field. The train would stand still patiently waiting while death penetrated into each corner of its interior. This would take from two to four days. When every outcry was silenced a group of men would appear. They would be young strong Jews assigned to the task of cleaning out these cars until their own turn to be shoved in them should arrive. Under the watch of strong guards they would unseal the cars and expel the heaps of decomposing bodies. The mounds of flesh they piled up would then be burned and the remnants buried in a single huge hole. The cleaning, burning and burial would consume two full days. The entire process of the disposal of innocent Jews would take from three to six days. During the disposals the Death Camp would recruit new victims. The train would return and the whole demonic cycle would be repeated.
#2) Escaping from the Death Camp:
I was still standing at my post near the Death Gate, still gazing at the no longer visible train when I felt a rough hand on my shoulder. My Estonian guide had come back for me. He was frantically trying to rouse my attention and to keep his voice lowered at the same time. “Wake up!” He was scolding me hoarsely. “Don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open! Hurry! Or we will both get caught. Follow me and be quick about it!” I followed him at a distance feeling completely numb at what I had just witnessed. When we reached the gate he reported to the German officer and pointed to me. Then we passed through the gate. The Estonian guide and I walked together for a short while and then we separated and I walked back to the little store as quickly as I could, even running when there was no one around. I reached the grocery store so breathless that the owner became alarmed. I tried to reassure him as I ran into the kitchen and locked the door. I threw off my boots, uniform and underwear. In a little while my bewildered host called out to me: “What are you doing in there?” I told him I am alright. When I came out he promptly entered the kitchen and called back in despair. “What the devil have you been doing? My whole kitchen is flooded!” I told him I was very dirty and I had to wash. I tried to soothe him and then I asked for permission to rest for a while in the vegetable garden. He granted my wish so I wrapped around me and went out into the garden and laid down under a tree in utter exhaustion.
#2) Escaping from the Death Camp:
I was still standing at my post near the Death Gate, still gazing at the no longer visible train when I felt a rough hand on my shoulder. My Estonian guide had come back for me. He was frantically trying to rouse my attention and to keep his voice lowered at the same time. “Wake up!” He was scolding me hoarsely. “Don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open! Hurry! Or we will both get caught. Follow me and be quick about it!” I followed him at a distance feeling completely numb at what I had just witnessed. When we reached the gate he reported to the German officer and pointed to me. Then we passed through the gate. The Estonian guide and I walked together for a short while and then we separated and I walked back to the little store as quickly as I could, even running when there was no one around. I reached the grocery store so breathless that the owner became alarmed. I tried to reassure him as I ran into the kitchen and locked the door. I threw off my boots, uniform and underwear. In a little while my bewildered host called out to me: “What are you doing in there?” I told him I am alright. When I came out he promptly entered the kitchen and called back in despair. “What the devil have you been doing? My whole kitchen is flooded!” I told him I was very dirty and I had to wash. I tried to soothe him and then I asked for permission to rest for a while in the vegetable garden. He granted my wish so I wrapped around me and went out into the garden and laid down under a tree in utter exhaustion.
#3) Recovering from a Living Nightmare:
The next morning I awoke with a terrible headache. As I stood up I was seized with a fit of nausea. I rushed out and began to vomit. I was sick for days but my gracious host attended to my needs. He provided a bed for me and I slept all that day and all the next night. In the morning I awoke with my host standing over me with a piece of bread and a glass of milk. I ate the bread and drank the milk. Then I crawled out of the bed carefully, afraid I might bring on a recurrence of the nausea. I had recovered but I was still very weak. With the help of the kind grocer I managed to get on the train to Warsaw and arrived there without any mishap. The images of what I saw in the Death Camp, I’m afraid are to be my permanent possessions. I would like nothing better than to purge my mind of their memories. The recollections of those events still bring on a recurrence of the nausea but more than that, I would like so much to be completely free of them; to obliterate the very thought that such things ever occurred!
#4) Farewell Party:
Just before I left Warsaw my friends prepared a celebration for me. I was invited to Mass. Many of my friends were devout. Father Edmund, the Priest, who was to officiate was one of my best and oldest friends. Now he was the Chaplain of Warsaw’s Secret Army. The streets were still sunk in blackness when I set out for the church. It was bitterly cold and the snow that fallen the previous day still lay in blue heaps on the walks and in the gutters. I wrapped myself tightly against the cutting wind and walked rapidly through the empty streets. Now that I was leaving Warsaw, and who knows for how long, it occurred to me how little attention I had paid to what is going on around me. I tried to note every feature to store in my memory of the streets and houses, quiet and tranquil in the darkness. Dawn was beginning to break as I reached the church. Mass was to take place in the room of my friend, the Priest, which was in a building behind the church. When I entered I saw that all my best friends were there. Four women had braved the cold for my sake. One of them was the writer whom we all admired so much for her work in the underground. Among the men was my Chief and a few others from my department. The chill of the morning air, the presence of all my best friends assembled here for me, and the mysterious atmosphere of the room, made the whole scene very charming and touching for me. We said almost nothing, greeting each other with warm handshakes. It had been arranged that the full company had been there before my arrival.
#5) The Sacred Ceremony:
The service was quiet and beautiful and we answered the deep tones of the Priest with hushed voices. In ended unhurriedly with no interruption from the outside. We all took Holy Communion and as soon as the service had ended the Priest reached for his prayer book. We all did likewise and soon we were all repeating the words of the prayer for travelers. I listened in silence, my eyes moist with tears. The prayers were followed by a part of the ceremony that had been secretly prepared for me. My friends a surprise for my farewell. They were giving me a present of peace and safety. Not everyday safety from the clubs and weapons of the German policemen or the jails of the Gestapo, but the most Supreme safety. Safety in God. Father Edmund asked me to approached the altar and kneel down. He held a scapular (a piece of cloth worn on monk’s chests) in his hand and began his speech: “I have been authorized by those in authority of the church to present you, Soldier of Poland, with a symbol of Christ’s body to carry with you on your journey. It will be a reminder to protect you from all evil. He hung the scapular about my neck. I hung my head and prayed. Father Edmund knelt beside me and prayed with me. There was a deep reverent silence in the room. This gift brought me tranquility through my trip from the time I left Warsaw to the day when I hurried through the noisy streets of London, to my first reception by the Polish Commander in Chief and Prime Minister, the late General Sikorski. It sped me on my journey as if on wings--- The entire trip through all the perilous frontiers of occupied Europe, through many dangers and pitfalls that lasted 21 days.
The Secret State: Series 10:
#1) Eyewitness to Mass Murder:
(to be continued) ....
(To be continued )
Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #10
How the War was Won:
“The Atlantic Charter” by Roosevelt and Churchill”
Bites #6-10, From Warsaw to Berlin:
#7) An Unnecessary Risk:
#8) Visiting old Friends:
#9) Friends of my Enemies:
#10) Brainwashing the Youth:
Bites #6-10, From Warsaw to Berlin:
#7) An Unnecessary Risk:
#8) Visiting old Friends:
#9) Friends of my Enemies:
#10) Brainwashing the Youth:
by Jan Karski 1944 :
“From The Secret State”
The Secret State: Series 10:
#2) Escaping the Death Camp:
#3) Recovering from a Living Nightmare:
#4) The Farewell Party:
#5) The Sacred Ceremony:
#6) From Warsaw to Berlin:
#7) An Unnecessary Risk:
#8) Visiting old Friends:
#9) Friends of my Enemies:
#10) Brainwashing the Youth:
#11) From Berlin to Brussels to Paris:
#12) Contacting the French Underground:
#13) True to form “Warbird”
#14) Destination: Allied Authorities:
#15) Journey to the Border:
#16) The Old Spaniard:
#17) Landing in Barcelona:
#18) Reaching my Contact:
#19) Meeting the Consul General:
#20) Receiving the Necessary Certificates:
#21) Through Algeria to London:
#22) Two Days of Preliminary Reports:
#23) Reporting to Poland’s Underground Leader:
#24) General Sikorski’s Report to United Nations:
#25) A Friend and a Commander in Chief:
#26) Awarded the Cross of Virtuti Militari:
#27) My Report to United Nations for Poland:
#28) My Report to United Nations War Crimes Commission:
#29) Last Day with General Sikorski:
#30) Crossing the Finish Line: (the end)
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To be Continued in the Next Daily Bites of “The Secret State Series #10”
How the War was Won:“The Atlantic Charter” by Roosevelt and Churchill”
"FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY"
Stand Up To Government Corruption and Hypocrisy
NEVER FORGET THE SACRIFICES
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