Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World

by Jan Karski, Madeleine Albright (Foreword by), Zbigniew Brzezinski (Afterword), Timothy Snyder (Contribution by), Barbara H. Kalabinski (Contribution by)

Overview

Jan Karski’s 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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary—is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626160316
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2014
Edition description:	Updated
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	405,670
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jan Karski was born in Łódź, 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 President Barack Obama.

Read an Excerpt

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.

Table of Contents

Note on the Text

Publisher's Note

Preface

Foreword

Biographical Essay of Jan Karski

1. Defeat2. Prisoner in Russia3. Exchange and Escape4. Devastated Poland5. The Beginning6. Transformation7. Initiation8. Borecki9. Contact between Cells10. Mission to France11. The Underground State12. Caught by the Gestapo13. Torture14. The SS Hospital15. Rescue16. The "Gardener"17. Propoganda from the Country18. Execution of a Traitor19. The Four Branches of the Underground20. The Laskowa Apartment21. Assignment in Lublin22. Retribution23. The Secret Press24. My "Conspiratorial Apparatus"25. The Liaison Women26. Marriage per Procuram27. School—Underground28. Parliament in Poland29. The Ghetto30. "To Die in Agony . . ."31. Unter den Linden Revisited32. Journey through France and Spain33. My Report to the World

Notes

Glossary

Further Reading

Afterword

Index

What People are Saying About This

Pat Quinn

The notion that one person can make a difference is personified by Jan Karski, who I was privileged to have as my professor—and guiding light—at Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Karski’s Story of a Secret State offers a glimpse into a time and place ruled by Nazi terror: Poland in the early 1940s. Karski risked his life to bear witness to Nazi atrocities against Jews, Catholics, and Polish dissidents. In disguise, he snuck into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi transfer camp, then reported his terrifying observations directly to British leaders and President Franklin Roosevelt, among the first reports of the holocaust to the civilized world. Georgetown’s edition of Story of a Secret State gives a new generation of readers the portrait of a genuine hero who truly made a difference.

Abraham H. Foxman

The Anti-Defamation League is proud to have named its Jan Karski Courage to Care award for an extraordinary man, who put conscience to action—and his own life at risk—to reveal the Holocaust to the West. Read his story and be inspired by Karski’s will, his spirit, and his commitment to humanity.

Daniel Henninger

Within Jan Karski's stirring account of selfless heroism to expose the Holocaust, lie two compelling messages: It is possible for one man to bring to the world's attention unimaginable political evil. The harder and still relevant question raised by Karski's story is: How does one get the civilized world to respond?

Antony Polonsky

This gripping book gives a comprehensive account of the Nazi occupation of Poland by a young courier in the Polish Underground, who sought to bring home to Western statesmen the tragic fate of his country and of his Jewish fellow-citizens. It is essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War.

Michael Berenbaum

I have been blessed to know many distinguished people, great artists, musicians, scholars, philosophers, political leaders and activists. Yet I have only known one man, whom I would truly call noble, my late colleague, Jan Karski. Story of a Secret State is both his most important book and his most failed book; important, because as a messenger from Poland, Karski tried to tell the world of what was happening in his native land to the Jews whose pleas he carried forth to the West. It was a warning issued while there was still time to act, still an opportunity to rescue or at least to protest. His most failed book—though it was widely read and well received when published—because we did not listen attentively enough to what this great man had to say. We must listen now even though it is too late.

From the Publisher

"This gripping book gives a comprehensive account of the Nazi occupation of Poland by a young courier in the Polish Underground, who sought to bring home to Western statesmen the tragic fate of his country and of his Jewish fellow-citizens. It is essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War." — Antony Polonsky, Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University

"I have been blessed to know many distinguished people, great artists, musicians, scholars, philosophers, political leaders and activists. Yet I have only known one man, whom I would truly call noble, my late colleague, Jan Karski. Story of a Secret State is both his most important book and his most failed book; important, because as a messenger from Poland, Karski tried to tell the world of what was happening in his native land to the Jews whose pleas he carried forth to the West. It was a warning issued while there was still time to act, still an opportunity to rescue or at least to protest. His most failed book — though it was widely read and well received when published — because we did not listen attentively enough to what this great man had to say. We must listen now even though it is too late." — Michael Berenbaum, Director, Sigi Ziering Institute; Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University

President Bill Clinton

A decade before Professor Karski began his remarkable tenure at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he was already teaching by the power of example—with lessons of heroism, resilience, and uncompromising leadership. All freedom-seeking people around the world should know Karski’s story.

Rahm Emanuel

Jan Karski’s brave account of the Nazi’s horrific crimes and one man’s heroic resistance strikes our collective conscience as strongly today as when he first published it over six decades ago. Today, millions around the world continue to thank and honor him for exposing the evil that was perpetuated throughout concentration camps. When President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Jan Karski the Medal of Freedom he recognized that Karski’s story is one of courage as much as compassion. This book is a stirring reminder that our world depends on both.

Norman Davies

Jan Karski is well known as the 'courier from Poland who exposed the Holocaust,' but his work in the service of the underground Polish state, which flourished under the noses of the Nazis, equally deserves to find the limelight. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, The Polish Resistance Movement did not confine itself to military activities; it created a huge network of clandestine organizations, which functioned in the fields of culture, education, propaganda, justice and economics, and which undermined the social control of the German forces of occupation. Karski's book on this subject is a classic, providing an unmatched account of the wartime realities in a country that lay at the epicenter of the conflict.

Editorial Reviews

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 honourable than Jan Karski, I would have no idea who to recommend.

Alan Furst

Those who fear they have been desensitized by the sheer volume of information chronicling Nazi brutality in occupied Europe must read this memoir. . . . This is an exciting but often painful recounting of one man’s witness to terror and tragedy.

Booklist

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.

David Harris

"Briskly paced, this is a gripping and immediate account of Nazi brutality from a brave leader of the resistance. (Starred Review)"—Publishers Weekly, 01/07/2013

"A disturbing, unique, invaluable record of Poland's suffering and heroism during World War II. A well-deserved revival of the author's 1944 best-seller. (Starred Review)"—Kirkus Reviews, 01/15/2013

"Those who fear they have been desensitized by the sheer volume of information chronicling Nazi brutality in occupied Europe must read this memoir. . . . This is an exciting but often painful recounting of one man's witness to terror and tragedy."—Booklist, 02/20/2013

"The story has all the characteristics of a spy-thriller—concealed film and suicide capsules, capture, interrogation, the drama of train travel and border checkpoints, the mysteries of those met, and countless convoluted escapes (a specialty of his)"—The Vienna Review

"Secret State is an indispensible and compelling historical document of World War II and the Holocaust, written by a supremely courageous humanitarian."—Tampa Bay Times

From the Publisher

First published to instant acclaim in 1944, Karski’s memoir—supplemented here with photos, facsimiles, and a foreword by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—tells of the four years (1939–1943) he served as the leading liaison officer in the Polish Underground during Nazi occupation. Only 25 in 1939, Karski recounts his work linking various aspects of the underground’s extensive administrative, political, and economic apparatuses, as well his capture and subsequent torture at the hands of the Gestapo (he likens being beaten by a rubber stick to “the sensation produced when a dentist’s drill strikes a nerve, but infinitely multiplied and spread over the entire nervous system”). After his capture, Karski was twice smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, where he was horrified to discover “hunger, misery, the atrocious stench of decomposing bodies, the pitiful moans of dying children.” He also briefly entered the Chelmno death camps, where he witnessed Jews being murdered in cattle cars through asphyxiation and burning by quicklime. Sent in 1942–1943 to London and Washington, D.C., where he met with British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and FDR, respectively, Karski delivered the first shocking eyewitness reports of the Holocaust to the Western world. Briskly paced, this is a gripping and immediate account of Nazi brutality from a brave leader of the resistance. Karski, who died in 2000, was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. B&w photos & illus. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

The story has all the characteristics of a spy-thriller—concealed film and suicide capsules, capture, interrogation, the drama of train travel and border checkpoints, the mysteries of those met, and countless convoluted escapes (a specialty of his)

The Vienna Review

Secret State is an indispensible and compelling historical document of World War II and the Holocaust, written by a supremely courageous humanitarian.

Tampa Bay Times

This gripping book gives a comprehensive account of the Nazi occupation of Poland by a young courier in the Polish Underground, who sought to bring home to Western statesmen the tragic fate of his country and of his Jewish fellow-citizens. It is essential reading for all those interested in the Second World War.

Antony Polonsky

I have been blessed to know many distinguished people, great artists, musicians, scholars, philosophers, political leaders and activists. Yet I have only known one man, whom I would truly call noble, my late colleague, Jan Karski. Story of a Secret State is both his most important book and his most failed book; important, because as a messenger from Poland, Karski tried to tell the world of what was happening in his native land to the Jews whose pleas he carried forth to the West. It was a warning issued while there was still time to act, still an opportunity to rescue or at least to protest. His most failed book—though it was widely read and well received when published—because we did not listen attentively enough to what this great man had to say. We must listen now even though it is too late.

Michael Berenbaum

Jan Karski’s brave account of the Nazi’s horrific crimes and one man’s heroic resistance strikes our collective conscience as strongly today as when he first published it over six decades ago. Today, millions around the world continue to thank and honor him for exposing the evil that was perpetuated throughout concentration camps. When President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Jan Karski the Medal of Freedom he recognized that Karski’s story is one of courage as much as compassion. This book is a stirring reminder that our world depends on both.

Rahm Emanuel

The Anti-Defamation League is proud to have named its Jan Karski Courage to Care award for an extraordinary man, who put conscience to action—and his own life at risk—to reveal the Holocaust to the West. Read his story and be inspired by Karski’s will, his spirit, and his commitment to humanity.

Abraham H. Foxman

Within Jan Karski's stirring account of selfless heroism to expose the Holocaust, lie two compelling messages: It is possible for one man to bring to the world's attention unimaginable political evil. The harder and still relevant question raised by Karski's story is: How does one get the civilized world to respond?

Daniel Henninger

Jan Karski is well known as the 'courier from Poland who exposed the Holocaust,' but his work in the service of the underground Polish state, which flourished under the noses of the Nazis, equally deserves to find the limelight. Unlike its counterparts in other countries, The Polish Resistance Movement did not confine itself to military activities; it created a huge network of clandestine organizations, which functioned in the fields of culture, education, propaganda, justice and economics, and which undermined the social control of the German forces of occupation. Karski's book on this subject is a classic, providing an unmatched account of the wartime realities in a country that lay at the epicenter of the conflict.

Norman Davies

The notion that one person can make a difference is personified by Jan Karski, who I was privileged to have as my professor—and guiding light—at Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Karski’s Story of a Secret State offers a glimpse into a time and place ruled by Nazi terror: Poland in the early 1940s. Karski risked his life to bear witness to Nazi atrocities against Jews, Catholics, and Polish dissidents. In disguise, he snuck into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi transfer camp, then reported his terrifying observations directly to British leaders and President Franklin Roosevelt, among the first reports of the holocaust to the civilized world. Georgetown’s edition of Story of a Secret State gives a new generation of readers the portrait of a genuine hero who truly made a difference.

Pat Quinn

A decade before Professor Karski began his remarkable tenure at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he was already teaching by the power of example—with lessons of heroism, resilience, and uncompromising leadership. All freedom-seeking people around the world should know Karski’s story.

President Bill Clinton

Those who fear they have been desensitized by the sheer volume of information chronicling Nazi brutality in occupied Europe must read this memoir. . . . This is an exciting but often painful recounting of one man’s witness to terror and tragedy.

Booklist

A well-deserved revival of the author's 1944 best-seller. A member of the Polish resistance after Germany's 1939 conquest, Karski (1914–2000) witnessed unspeakable Nazi behavior and the courageous response of his countrymen before traveling to Britain and the United States with the first news of the Holocaust. He was a popular, educated 25-year-old diplomatic officer mobilized days before Hitler's September 1 invasion. Caught up in the catastrophic rout, his unit retreated across the country and into the arms of the Red Army, which had invaded on September 17. Eventually transferred from a Soviet labor camp to a Nazi labor camp, he escaped and joined the fledgling Polish resistance. As a courier, he traveled through German lines to Paris to meet with the Polish exile government. He was caught by the Gestapo during his second mission and tortured to the point of attempting suicide. Rescued by the resistance, he spent months recuperating. Preparing for his third mission in 1942, he toured Poland at the request of Jewish resistance leaders and was a horrified witness to brutality and mass starvation inside the Warsaw ghetto and the early death camps. Karski traveled through Germany, France and Spain to London, where he delivered his report and microfilm evidence to Polish and British leaders before crossing the Atlantic in 1943 to do the same in the U.S. The mission received wide publicity, and many important figures urged action. Sadly, although Karski made his case personally to leading statesmen, including Franklin Roosevelt and Anthony Eden, the Allies did nothing. A disturbing, unique, invaluable record of Poland's suffering and heroism during World War II.

Kirkus Reviews