Story of a Secret State [Paperback]

Jan Karski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

In Nazi-occupied Poland, schools, courts and newspapers were operated by the Polish Underground secretly, right under the nose of the Gestapo. The author who was liaison officer between the underground and the exiled Polish government in London, wrote this amazing report right after the liberation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jan Karski's Story of a Secret State stands in the absolute first rank of books about the resistance in World War II. If you wish to read about a man more courageous and honorable than Jan Karski I would have no idea who to recommend. Yes, it's that good. -- Alan Furst It deserves its status as a Penguin Classic, not only because it is a great historic document, but also because it's a cracking good read: Karski's adventures are worthy of the wildest spy thriller -- Nigel Jones Telegraph His account of his missions is an electrifying tale of false identities, near captures, spies and secret film capsules ... in human terms, Karski's account is invaluable -- Frank Trentmann Daily Express Story of a Secret State is now viewed as a classic insider's account of the Resistance in occupied Europe...After all the harrowing descriptions of Holocaust horrors there have been over the years from survivors of Auschwitz, Belsen, and Ravensbruck, Karski's vivid account of what he saw back in 1942 is still deeply moving. We feel his shock and incredulity that this could really be happening in 20th century 'civilised' Europe. -- Tony Rennell Daily Mail The bravery of the man who risked all to tell the world about the Holocaust is truly staggering ... an extraordinary testament to Man's inhumanity to Man, and the even more remarkable courage required to resist it -- Ben McIntyre The Times Karski's exploration of the moral fog in which he and his colleagues operated ... made me recall thrillers like Man Hunt and Hangmen Also Die ... two episodes resemble scenes tantalisingly directed by Hitchcock ... Karski's account of the systematic brutality of the Nazi regime is literally chilling -- Peter Conrad The Observer Reads like the screenplay to an incredibly exciting war movie - but it is all true -- Andrew Roberts Seared with an urgency that pitches the reader into the heart of the horror -- Ben Felsenburg Metro His story deserves not just revival but reflection ... Karski's electrifying words still speak only too eloquently for themselves -- Marek Kohn Independent --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Karski was his nom de guerre; he had been born Jan Kozielewski, the youngest of eight children, in Lodz, Poland's second-largest city, on April 24, 1914. Karski was a liaison officer of the Polish underground, who infiltrated both the Warsaw Ghetto and a German concentration camp and then carried the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to a mostly disbelieving Anthony Eden and Franklin Roosevelt. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon Publications (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931541396
• ISBN-13: 978-1931541398
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.9 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #928,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing, true story that reads like a gripping novel May 28, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book was assigned for a graduate course I took in Eastern European history; I couldn't believe that any required reading could be so exciting. It is the true story of Jan Karski's experience as a messenger for the Polish underground, and it doesn't include a dull page. Karski completed several missions, was captured by the Germans, and escaped. The leaders of Poland's Jewish community, knowing that Karski was going to the West, arranged for him to disguise himself as a guard in a death camp so that he could witness the atrocities. He not only went and included his horrifying experiences in this book, he personally reported what he saw to president Roosevelt and other prominent Americans. Karski knew that the West was betraying Poland and, as a last ditch effort to influence Western policy, he wrote and published this book in 1944. It was a best seller and, I believe, a Book-of-the-month club selection. So much for not knowing about what Hitler was doing to the Jews! Do read this amazing story and, to get the full background, read the book "Karksi, How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust," by E. Thomas Wood.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Polish History Classic June 17, 2002

By William L. Harwood

Format:Paperback

This book belongs on everybody's short list of Polish and East European history. Jan Karski was a truly heroic man and is story is told in plain, straightforward langauge as the story of one man who took enormous risks to tell the story of the Holocaust. A necessary corrective to much of the polemic on the complex issue of Poles and the Nazi occupation. Not to be missed. This is the second anniversary of his death here in Washington.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Karski's Historic Trip: A Polish Underground Operation June 20, 2006

By Jan Peczkis

Format:Paperback

Jan Karski's trip to England and the US, which warned the Allies of the Holocaust in progress, is well known. However, Karski is often incorrectly thought of as some sort of unusual moral giant who tried to save the Jews all on his own. In fact, as this book makes clear, his heroic trip was planned, ordered, and performed in the context of his active, multifaceted involvement in the Polish Underground. For example, Karski's visit to the Belzec death camp was facilitated by a rendezvous on the nearby property of a Polish farmer who was also a member of the Underground (p. 340).

Karski was involved in the defense of Poland from the first hours of WWII. A few authors (e. g. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas) have tried to deny the existence of a German fifth column during the German-Soviet conquest of Poland (September-October 1939). In actuality, Karski's very unit came under fire from members of this fifth column (p. 8). The attackers were Polish citizens of German descent.

Karski ended up in Soviet and then German captivity. He repeatedly writes of the unbelievable barbarity of both conquerors. While in a Gestapo prison, Karski slashed his wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. He had feared that he might break down under the incessant torture and betray his confidants in the Polish Underground. Karski was freed by a daring commando attack by the Underground combined with a well-placed bribe of a German guard.

Karski elaborates on the forced Germanization of Poznan (pp. 78-82), something attempted unsuccessfully before under Frederick the Great and then Bismarck. The Poles were brutally expelled. Very few of the remaining Poles chose to register as Germans and thus become Volksdeutsche.

Karski (p.... 132) succinctly summarizes the attitude of almost all full-blooded Poles to the Nazis: "The German occupation was never recognized by the Polish people, and there could be no doubt on this score because, in Poland alone of all the occupied countries, there never appeared anything resembling a legal or pseudo-legal body composed of Poles and collaborating with the Germans. Indeed, in all of Poland, not a single political office in the German-controlled administration was ever held by a Pole; not a single head of any province was Polish".

Jan Thomas Gross has insinuated that Poles had no Quisling because the Germans did not want any Polish Quisling. Jan Karski's personal experience with the Germans adds to the refutation to Gross' silly claim. While a captive of the dreaded Gestapo, Karski was personally approached by a high-ranking SS man (pp. 155-163) who tried to induce him to become a Polish Quisling. The SS-man promised him relief from torture, and then appealed to the hopelessness of the Polish cause and the certainty of German victory in the wake of the fall of France and the seemingly-incipient peace treaty with England. The SS-man also cited the sensibleness of all the other nations that had formed collaborationist governments under German rule and said that Poles should also, for once, come to their senses and do the same. Karski refused.

Karski visited Nazi Germany itself. He reports (p. 217) never encountering any sign of German opposition to the Nazi rule. (Of course, some developed later as Germany began to lose one battle after another, and the attempt was made to assassinate Hitler in order to save Germany's skin from increasingly certain defeat).

A certain amount of detail is given to Karski's visits with British and American leaders. It is a shame that Roosevelt made such supportive statements about Poland while, behind Karski's back, he was already selling out the Poles to the Soviet Union. Read more ›

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Courageous does not begin to describe..... July 3, 2011

By redbigbill

Format:Hardcover

First published in the USA in 1944, this edition was updated by the author just before his death in 2000, the recent French edition racked up a respectable 150.000 plus sales. This Penguin Classics edition is the first UK puiblication.
Jan Karski is credited with being the first man to inform the Allies of the Holocaust when he smuggled microfilm evidence out of Poland in 1943. Even after meetings with Anthony Eden in London and Roosevelt in Washington - he was basically ignored.
'Story of a Secret State, My Report to the World' is Jan Karski's story of his introduction and involvement with the Polish underground resistance (the 'secret' State within a State) starting with his 'capture' by the Red Army, being involved in a prisoner exchange with the Nazis and his escape whilst being transported to a German Labour Camp.
Karski's tale is to say the least heroic but he writes in a rather understated, matter of fact way, something captured in an excellent translation. 4 years of slipping in out of not only German occupied Polish towns but between countries as well. Captured by the Gestapo, tortured, he was rescued and smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto. He then disguised himself as a guard to get first hand evidence of a Nazi death camp, and travelled across occupied Europe to get this evidence to England - but to very little or no avail.
This book is a witness to history as was the man who wrote it, a patriot and a fighter who was more than willing to lay down his life for his country.... The new edition has expanded accounts of his meetings with top Allied chiefs - all of them named - who for one reason or other decided not to act on his information on the Holocaust which by 1943 was well established in Poland, Germany and the Soviet Union, with mass deportations taking place from all occupied territories.
Not a book for all tastes but one that I hope will be widely read, especially by younger people - least we ever begin to forget what happened in Poland and the other Nazi occupied countries. Read more ›