The Secret State Series #9
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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.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 #9:
The Secret State #9 Hitler’s Jewish Extermination:
Top Officer in WW2 to German Slaves,
to Top Underground Courier:
(an unknown chapter of World War 2)
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 #9:
Bites #26-30,The One Way Train Ride:
#27) Indescribable Dehumanizing:
#28) Marching through the Death Camp:
#29) Posted at the Death Gate:
by Jan Karski :
#26) The One Way Train ride:
I looked to my left and noticed the railroad tracks which passed about a hundred yards from the death camp. From the camp to the tracks a raised passage had been built from old boards. On the track a dusty freight train waited motionless. The Estonian guard followed my gaze with the interest of seeing what kind of impression his home place had on me as a visitor. He proceeded eagerly to enlighten me. “That is the train they load them on. You will see it all.” We came to a gate. Two German non coms were standing there talking. I could hear snatches of their conversation. They seemed to be talking about a night they spent in a nearby town. I hung back a bit to catch some information. The Estonian guard seemed to think I was losing my nerve. “Go ahead!” he whispered impatiently. “They don’t care about the likes of you!” We walked up to the gate and saluted the non coms vigorously. They returned the salute indifferently and we passed through entering the camp and mingling unnoticed with the crowd. “Follow me” he said loudly. “I will take you to a good spot.” We passed an old Jew, a man about sixty sitting on the ground with no clothes on. He sat there silent. No one paid attention. Not far from him a small child lay all alone crouched and quivering. No one cared.
#27) Indescribable Dehumanizing:
The Jewish mass in the death camp vibrated, trembled, and moved to and fro, as if they were united in a single, insane, rhythmic trance. They waved their hands, shouted, quarreled, cursed, and spat at each other. Hunger, thirst, fear, and exhaustion, had driven them all insane. I had been told that they were usually left in the camp for three or four days without food or water. They were all former inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto. When they had been rounded up they were given permission to take about ten pounds of baggage. Most of them took food, clothes, bedding, and if they had any, they took money and jewelry. On the train the Germans stripped them of everything they had of the slightest value. They were left nothing but a few scraps of food and rags for clothing. Those who left the train starved continually in the camp. There was no organization or order of any kind. None of them had anything to share and they soon lost self control. At that stage they had come completely dehumanized. It was typical autumn weather, cold, raw and rainy. The sheds could not accommodate more than two or three thousand people and every batch included more than five thousand. This meant that there was always two to three thousand men, women, and children scattered about in the open, suffering exposure as well as everything else.
#28) Marching through the Death Camp:
To get to my post was a great ordeal. We crossed the entire camp and finally stopped about twenty yards from the gate opening to the passage way leading to the train. It was a comparatively uncrowded spot. I felt immensely relieved at having finished my stumbling sweaty journey through the mass of helpless people I could not help. The guide was standing by my side giving me instructions. I hardly heard him. My thoughts were elsewhere. He tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to him mechanically. He raised his voice. “Look here! You are going to stay here. I will walk on a little way. Keep away from all the Estonians. Don’t forget. If there is any trouble I don’t know you and you don’t know me!” I nodded vaguely at him. He shook his head and walked off. I remained there about half an hour watching the spectacle of human misery. At each moment I felt the impulse to run. I had to force myself to remain indifferent. I had to convince myself that I was not one of the throbbing multitude. My body seemed to tie itself in knots. I had to remain alert every time an Estonian guard approached me. All the guards circled about ,,,,bored and indifferent. The crowd continued to writhe in agony. Suddenly I noticed a change in the motion of the guards. they walked less and they all seemed to be glancing at the passage to the track which was quite close to me. I turned toward it myself.
#29) Posted at the death Gate:
Two German policemen came to the gate with a tall bulky SS man. He barked out an order and they opened the gate. They dashed down the passage and took up their position where the passage ended at the train. The whole system had been worked out with crude effectiveness. The outlet of the passage was blocked off so that any attempt on the part of one of the Jews to escape, even if they had so much of an impression of mind left to do so, would have been completely impossible. Moreover, it made the job easier on the tyrants to load them on the train. The SS man turned to the crowd and placed his feet wide apart and his hands on his hips and let loose a roar that must have actually hurt his ribs. “Quiet! Quiet! (in German) It could be heard far above the hellish babble that came from the crowd. “All Jews will board this train to be taken to a place where work awaits them. (LIE!) Anyone who attempts to resist will be shot! He stopped speaking and looked challengingly at the helpless mob who hardly seemed to know what was happening. suddenly, accompanying the movement , with a loud hardy laugh, he yanked out his gun and fired into the crowd. A single groan answered him
#30) The Massacre:
For a moment the crowd was silent. Those near the SS man who shot into the crowd recoiled from the shots and tried to dodge, panic stricken, but this was resisted by the crowd running forward from shots from the rear. The whole mass was surging forward madly, screaming in pain and fear. The shots continued from the rear and from all sides, narrowing down the crowd and driving them into a savage scramble onto the passageway, trampling it so fiercely that it threatened to fall apart. Here new shots were heard. The two policemen at the entrance of the train were now firing into the oncoming throng corralled in the passageway, in order to slow them down and prevent from demolishing their flimsy structure. The SS man bellowed like a mad man: “ORDER! ORDER!” and the two German policemen echoed him, firing straight into the faces of the Jews still trying to enter the train. Now came the most horrible episode of them all. The Bund leader had warned me I would never forget the horrible things I would see. The military rule stipulates a train car will hold no more than 40 soldiers or eight horses. The Germans had issued an order to pack 130 Jews in each car. These orders were now being carried out, alternately firing and swinging their rifles, the policemen were forcing more people into the cars that were already over full. Crazed at what they were suffering they climbed on others heads. I counted 46 cars as they moved down the tracks to an abandoned field The Jews died in agony as Himmler fulfilled his promise to his Fuehrer!
The Jewish mass in the death camp vibrated, trembled, and moved to and fro, as if they were united in a single, insane, rhythmic trance. They waved their hands, shouted, quarreled, cursed, and spat at each other. Hunger, thirst, fear, and exhaustion, had driven them all insane. I had been told that they were usually left in the camp for three or four days without food or water. They were all former inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto. When they had been rounded up they were given permission to take about ten pounds of baggage. Most of them took food, clothes, bedding, and if they had any, they took money and jewelry. On the train the Germans stripped them of everything they had of the slightest value. They were left nothing but a few scraps of food and rags for clothing. Those who left the train starved continually in the camp. There was no organization or order of any kind. None of them had anything to share and they soon lost self control. At that stage they had come completely dehumanized. It was typical autumn weather, cold, raw and rainy. The sheds could not accommodate more than two or three thousand people and every batch included more than five thousand. This meant that there was always two to three thousand men, women, and children scattered about in the open, suffering exposure as well as everything else.
#28) Marching through the Death Camp:
To get to my post was a great ordeal. We crossed the entire camp and finally stopped about twenty yards from the gate opening to the passage way leading to the train. It was a comparatively uncrowded spot. I felt immensely relieved at having finished my stumbling sweaty journey through the mass of helpless people I could not help. The guide was standing by my side giving me instructions. I hardly heard him. My thoughts were elsewhere. He tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to him mechanically. He raised his voice. “Look here! You are going to stay here. I will walk on a little way. Keep away from all the Estonians. Don’t forget. If there is any trouble I don’t know you and you don’t know me!” I nodded vaguely at him. He shook his head and walked off. I remained there about half an hour watching the spectacle of human misery. At each moment I felt the impulse to run. I had to force myself to remain indifferent. I had to convince myself that I was not one of the throbbing multitude. My body seemed to tie itself in knots. I had to remain alert every time an Estonian guard approached me. All the guards circled about ,,,,bored and indifferent. The crowd continued to writhe in agony. Suddenly I noticed a change in the motion of the guards. they walked less and they all seemed to be glancing at the passage to the track which was quite close to me. I turned toward it myself.
#29) Posted at the death Gate:
Two German policemen came to the gate with a tall bulky SS man. He barked out an order and they opened the gate. They dashed down the passage and took up their position where the passage ended at the train. The whole system had been worked out with crude effectiveness. The outlet of the passage was blocked off so that any attempt on the part of one of the Jews to escape, even if they had so much of an impression of mind left to do so, would have been completely impossible. Moreover, it made the job easier on the tyrants to load them on the train. The SS man turned to the crowd and placed his feet wide apart and his hands on his hips and let loose a roar that must have actually hurt his ribs. “Quiet! Quiet! (in German) It could be heard far above the hellish babble that came from the crowd. “All Jews will board this train to be taken to a place where work awaits them. (LIE!) Anyone who attempts to resist will be shot! He stopped speaking and looked challengingly at the helpless mob who hardly seemed to know what was happening. suddenly, accompanying the movement , with a loud hardy laugh, he yanked out his gun and fired into the crowd. A single groan answered him
#30) The Massacre:
For a moment the crowd was silent. Those near the SS man who shot into the crowd recoiled from the shots and tried to dodge, panic stricken, but this was resisted by the crowd running forward from shots from the rear. The whole mass was surging forward madly, screaming in pain and fear. The shots continued from the rear and from all sides, narrowing down the crowd and driving them into a savage scramble onto the passageway, trampling it so fiercely that it threatened to fall apart. Here new shots were heard. The two policemen at the entrance of the train were now firing into the oncoming throng corralled in the passageway, in order to slow them down and prevent from demolishing their flimsy structure. The SS man bellowed like a mad man: “ORDER! ORDER!” and the two German policemen echoed him, firing straight into the faces of the Jews still trying to enter the train. Now came the most horrible episode of them all. The Bund leader had warned me I would never forget the horrible things I would see. The military rule stipulates a train car will hold no more than 40 soldiers or eight horses. The Germans had issued an order to pack 130 Jews in each car. These orders were now being carried out, alternately firing and swinging their rifles, the policemen were forcing more people into the cars that were already over full. Crazed at what they were suffering they climbed on others heads. I counted 46 cars as they moved down the tracks to an abandoned field The Jews died in agony as Himmler fulfilled his promise to his Fuehrer!
( End of Series 9 )
(to be continued) ....
(To be continued )
Daily Bites of The Secret State Series #10
How the War was Won:
#2) Escaping the Death Camp:
#3) Recovering from a Living Nightmare:
#4) The Farewell Party:
#5) The Sacred Ceremony:
by Jan Karski 1944 :
“From The Secret State”
The Secret State: Series 9:
LibertygroupFreedom
https://redd.it/6y400k
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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