L’UOMO CHE SCELSE L’INFERNO



La storia di Witold Pilecki, membro della resistenza antinazista polacca, che non si offrì esattamente volontario, ma accettò la richiesta, non proprio un ordine, del suo capo cellula di farsi arrestare dagli invasori tedeschi per essere trasferito ad Auschwitz: in modo da testimoniare cosa accadeva realmente in quel luogo, organizzare un’attività di resistenza interna tra i detenuti, ed eventualmente una rivolta.

Man mano il raggio d’azione si allarga e dal lager andiamo a Londra, a Varsavia, nei luoghi dove agivano cellule di resistenza, governi in esilio, agenti segreti. Per raccontare il lento – troppo lento purtroppo – processo di informazione sulla vera attività di Auschwitz, e di luoghi simili, sulla Soluzione Finale, il genocidio degli ebrei, preceduto dallo sterminio dei prigionieri di guerra sovietici, dagli oppositori politici, da malati di mente o disabili fisici.
L’Occidente, il governo inglese e quello americano in particolare, impiegarono anni a rendersi conto, a convincersi della sostanza e portata delle informazioni che ricevevano, che faticavano a considerare attendibili.



Il mondo non aveva ancora conosciuto una mostruosità di questa portata, un processo genocida meccanizzato senza precedenti nella storia dell’umanità. Fatto è che mentre la macelleria nazista cresceva di intensità e quantità, all’ovest, chi era nei posti di comando, e quelli che li consigliavano e condividevano responsabilità di governo, stentavano a credere, a convincersi, sminuivano i dati che arrivavano, prendevano tempo, procrastinavano.
Si commentava e rispondeva:
È una notizia che non trova conferma in altre fonti,
o addirittura Un folle pettegolezzo scaturito dai timori del popolo ebraico.
E intanto milioni di persone finivano in cenere.


Il lavoro rende liberi.

Non bisogna sottovalutare uno dei più robusti collanti della società occidentale (ma non solo occidentale): l’antisemitismo. Che ha attraversato ogni secolo e ogni longitudine.
Eventuali masse di profughi e rifugiati spaventavano allora, come oggi. L’Inghilterra aveva forte timore di afflussi massicci in Palestina che era un suo “protettorato”. E proprio il Regno Unito, che per posizione geografica e per comune appartenenza europea, era più coinvolto, riceveva un maggior numero di dispacci e informazioni, più numerose e più fresche, filtrava ritardava temporeggiava.



La storia di Witold Pilecki non si esaurisce nei suoi quasi mille giorni trascorsi nel lager di Auschwitz, assistendo alla sua trasformazione da campo di concentramento a campo di sterminio. Per quanto, occorre essere precisi, perché in quel luogo contava ogni singolo istante, sopravvivere un giorno o una settimana faceva una grossa differenza: la prigionia cominciò il 21 settembre 1940: quando arriva a destinazione vede dieci uomini che hanno viaggiato con lui nel vagone piombato fucilati sul posto; gli altri, lui concluso, vengono immediatamente brutalmente picchiati; lo rasano a zero; gli danno un numero invece di un nome…
Auschwitz per lui si interrompe con la fuga del 26 aprile 1943. Dopo 947 giorni.
Dopo di che, Pilecki, mai sazio di patriottismo, mai incerto nel suo amore per la Polonia, raggiunse le truppe polacche in Italia che combattevano contro i tedeschi. Dopo di che tornò a Varsavia per aggregarsi a una nuova resistenza: quella contro la sovietizzazione di Stalin.
Da una dittatura all’altra, da un totalitarismo all’altro, da un invasore all’altro. E quello che non poté Auschwitz, riuscì ai volenterosi carnefici del Piccolo Padre: Pilecki, arrestato dai sovietici, dopo il classico processo farsa, venne giustiziato con un colpo di pistola alla nuca. Era il 25 maggio del 1948. E Pilecki aveva da dodici giorni compiuto quarantasette anni.
Con la fine della Guerra Fredda, nel 1990, è stato riabilitato.
La banalità del bene?


Rudolf Höss, comandante del campo di Auschwitz: dopo il processo a Varsavia venne impiccato nel 1947.

Fairweather ha utilizzato un gran numero di fonti come risultato di un’intensa ricerca: ci sono decine di pagine finali dedicate alle note, bibliografia ed elenco dei nomi. Come al solito, purtroppo, le note in fondo, invece che a piè di pagina, costringono a molteplici segnalibri, rallentando e complicando la lettura.
L’edizione non è particolarmente curata: le utili foto sono riprodotte in qualità ectoplasmatica, le pagine tendono facilmente a scollarsi, qualche refuso di troppo, margini esigui, la sensazione di una redazione frettolosa.
E spero che la mole di dati più o meno storici siano attendibili più delle conoscenze geografiche sull’Italia di Fairweather che colloca a un paio di chilometri a sud di Ancona una cittadina, Porto Santo Stefano, che invece ne dista una sessantina.
Aggiungo che per i miei gusti Fairweather ricorre un po’ troppo spesso a formule quali “a quanto sembra”, “è probabile”, “è quasi certo”, che tendono a ridurre il suo lavoro. E, sempre per gusto personale, ho apprezzato poco i tentativi di “colore”, alcune battute di dialogo inventate, altri brevi passaggi.



La lettura è stata dolorosa e affaticata dal fatto che entità come sei milioni, o nove (o…?), sono così elevate da risultare astrali: ma il dettagliato racconto dall’interno del campo di concentramento di Auschwitz, la sua progressiva trasformazione in campo di sterminio, l’elenco parziale delle vittime, settecentododici oggi si sommano a millecentotrentaquattro di ieri, e poi a seimilanovantuno domani, sembra di vederli tutti uno per uno, e il racconto con scarna descrizione del multiforme modo in cui i nazisti conducevano il loro programmato massacro, sono stati duri da sostenere.


Witold Pileckiamericana genocidio-e-dintorni saggistica ...more124 s Marquise1,803 896

This is one of the few books in English that recount the incredible story of Polish captain Witold Pilecki, the only person that we're aware of volunteered to become a prisoner at Auschwitz in early 1940, when the camp wasn't yet the monstrosity it'd be later known as. The Polish underground resistance, of which Pilecki was a member, had their suspicions about what was going down in the camp, and sent him to find out.

What he found out we all know now: brutality, starvation, daily abuse of all sorts, impromptu gassings, medical experiments, casual murder . . . Everything depraved that you can think of, although this book (and Pilecki's memoirs) don't mention everything for obvious reasons. Loyal to his cause, Pilecki sent reports ingeniously smuggled out of the camp, that were sent to the Polish underground's leadership and then to the Polish government in exile in London, and from there to the higher ups in the Allied command, Churchill and the Americans included.

What they all made of the Pilecki reports we all also know, and it's a sad and infuriating story. Britain had the power to obliterate Auschwitz before the gas chambers became a trademark of the camp, and didn't do it. The Polish underground would've attacked the camp (as opposed to the British or Americans bombing it) by land but couldn't and didn't do it. Fairweather does address the motivations and the difficulties of attacking the camp by air or land, but not in that much detail or in-depth, I imagine because this is meant for the general readership, but you can still get an overall idea of what could've been done to stop Auschwitz from becoming . . . well, Auschwitz as we now know it.

The book also deals with Pilecki's incredible escape from Auschwitz, and how that didn't help achieve his objective of convincing the leadership to attack the camp, as well as deals with the saddest part of this whole sad story: Pilecki's ignominious end at the hands of his own countrymen when the Soviet Union took over Poland and appointed Communist lickspittles to power that took to getting rid of "rivals" and non-Communist elements. I do wish this part was longer and more detailed, because Fairweather ends it on a cliffhanger.

All in all, Pilecki's experience is perhaps the most incredible of all the resistance heroes. I can only think of Jan Karski doing something similar and comparable by choice and not because they had no options but be involved. Fairweather does address that there were later reports about Auschwitz that, he argues, may have had more impact than Pilecki's but that wouldn't have been credited as much if not for his report (and Karski's, I would add), although that one, the Vrba-Wetzler report, was unfortunately about as ineffective in convincing the Allies to take action as Pilecki's was.

I would've done without some of the author's arguments here and there that were rather strange to me, such as Fairweather saying that Pilecki placed country above family because he never discussed his underground activities or his decisions about Auschwitz with his wife. Well, isn't that standard procedure in the resistance? They don't tell family in case the Germans arrest and torture them (and the Germans did do that all the time, making the family pay for the activities of one), so the less they know the better. Pilecki was an experienced soldier, he'd not be telling his wife his underground activities for her and their kids' safety. I suspect that Maria Pilecka survived because she didn't have anything to do with her husband's activities. The Soviets were the Nazis in terms of making the whole family pay, after all.

I'd also have done without the author's slipping in the occasional framing of WWII politics in terms of left-wing and right-wing; you can definitely tell he's American and thinks in terms of their binary party system, which isn't the appropriate frame for WWII. And finally, I don't think we can fault Pilecki for not having a 20/20 global and all-encompassing vision of what the Holocaust truly meant, given his vantage point. When you're swimming in the toxic waste and trying to survive there, you don't stop to think of the wider implications of the toxic waste, so that comment in the epilogue was curious, to say the least.

Anyway, 3.5 stars for this overall fine and readable book about a man that merited more praise than he got in life and for so long after his death.have-reviewed history-biography-and-memoirs non-fiction ...more123 s Steven Z.613 134

In 2003 my wife and I visited Krakow, Poland as part of a trip to locate where my father’s family lived before immigrating to the United States in the 1930s to escape the dark clouds that were descending upon Europe. During our visit I hired a driver and spent hours visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau the resting place for many relatives that I never was fortunate enough to meet. Seventy-five years after the conclusion of World War II, numerous questions abound concerning the then then “crown jewel” of Hitler’s extermination machine. Books continue to proliferate, but what sets Jack Fairweather’s new book, THE VOLUNTEER: ONE MAN, AN UNDERGROUND ARMY, AND THE SECRET MISSION TO DESTROY AUSCHWITZ apart is his discovery of the role of Witold Pilecki, who volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz in order to organize an underground resistance that would be part of a major revolt against the Germans.

Pilecki has become a national hero in Poland and his story remained unknown in the west until it was uncovered by historians in the 1960s and 70s. Much of his writings were sealed by the Soviet Union after the war because as a Polish nationalist, Pilecki was deemed a threat to the state, placed on trial and executed by the Stalinist regime. It wasn’t until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the opening of the state archives in Warsaw that the academic Adam Cyra and Pilecki’s 60 year old son, Andrzej had access to his father’s writings and reports smuggled out of Auschwitz in order to alert the allies as to what was occurring in the crematoria and gas chambers, and argue for the west to bomb the camps.

Fairweather asks a number of important questions from the outset that impinge upon the role of England and the United States as it learned of the extermination camps. He carefully develops a number of important themes that reverberate throughout the narrative. First, despite Pilecki’s earnest efforts, that included being tortured, beaten, starved, suffering from typhus, he was able to employ the Polish underground network to smuggle out the truth as to what was occurring in Auschwitz to underground leaders in Warsaw who were able to convey part of his reports to the Polish government in exile, and hence to the Churchill government in 1942. Much of this information was also communicated to the Roosevelt administration in Washington who was much more of a political animal in deferring any decisions to assist the Jews be it immigration by confronting State Department policies that was openly anti-Semitic under the auspices of Breckinridge Long, or approving bombing of the camp.

Second, was the mind set of British politicians in high circles who suffered from an “in-bred” anti-Semitism and saw Pilecki’s information as a distraction from the main war effort. They would allow the dissemination of some information but would not endorse it. As Richard Breitman and David Wyman have pointed out the British were obsessed by the Palestinian issue and they feared an Arab reaction if they approved further immigration because of their dependence on Middle Eastern oil and the Suez Canal.

Lastly, Fairweather’s narrative focuses on Pilecki’s attempt to educate the allies and get them to acknowledge the importance of what was occurring at Auschwitz. On another level he concentrates on the allied response and the reasons for their “deafness” when it came to the extermination of European Jewry. As he concludes, “the allied failure to Understand Auschwitz’s role as the epicenter of the Holocaust allowing officials to continue to characterize the German assault on the Jews ASA a diffuse phenomenon that could only be stopped by defeating Germany.” Downplaying genocide could only inhibit further investigation. Much of what Fairweather argues has been put forth by numerous historians, but the key is the personal story of Witold Pilecki that unfolds.

Fairweather has written a deeply personal portrait of a man whose moral and ethical principles stood out in a deeply troubled period. The narrative is based on assiduous research that included interviews with fellow inmates who the author had access, that provide insights into his character, his decision making, and the impact of his actions. Fairweather traces Pilecki’s journey from his quiet family life who survived the Nazi onslaught on his country in September, 1939, experiences in Auschwitz, his methodology in organizing his underground network, strategies for smuggling out information, and how he tried to convince his superiors of the importance of destroying Auschwitz as it was a vehicle to exterminate millions of Jews as well as thousands of Polish Catholics.

Many of Pilecki’s compatriots Dr. Wladyslaw Dering, a Warsaw gynecologist who faced the dilemma of how much he should cooperate with the Nazis as he tried to save as many inmates as possible, a Polish spy known as Napoleon, and Stefan Rowecki, the leader of the Polish underground in Warsaw are introduced as are the kapos, Alois Staller who tortured the inmates, the SS Commander, Rudolf Hoss, who ran the camp, among many, and of course the victims who suffered unbearably. Fairweather presents the unfathomable and grisly details that go along with any discussion of the Holocaust that have appeared in historical accounts since the end of World War II, but he delivers them in a concise manner, with much sensitivity and at the same time is able to convey to the reader the importance of Pilecki’s mission to expose what the Nazis were doing in Auschwitz, particularly once the decision for the Final Solution is made in January, 1942 at the Wannsee Conference.

If there is a criticism that can be offered is that at times Fairweather is somewhat cavalier about his information, i.e. his description the Battle of the Bulge as a minor hinderance to the allied drive to end the war. Further, he should be careful with his statistics stating that there were 2,000,000 Jews under Nazi control in Poland, the 3,300,000 would be more accurate.

Overall, Fairweather has written an important book because he uncovers the role of an important figure who did his best to alarm the world as to what was the end goal of Hitler’s racial war. The fact that Witold Pilecki was kept hidden for so long is the result of another type of extermination, Stalin’s effort to eradicate any Pole who might have been given any credit for liberating their country. Kudos to Fairweather for bringing Pilecki’s story to the fore
63 s Eric Anderson694 3,495

Although it feels events of the Holocaust and WWII have been comprehensively written about in numerous accounts, it’s astounding that new stories continue to emerge which present a different angle on this complex history. Virtually unknown accounts of heroism and tragic defeat continue to emerge and this new biographical account of Polish officer Witold Pilecki is one of the most shocking and heart breaking I’ve ever read. After Poland was occupied and Auschwitz (a former Polish army barracks) was turned into a German prisoner of war camp, Pilecki and other Polish nationalists devised campaigns to resist their invaders and take back their country. One of the things they needed most was information to convey to what would become the Allied countries to convince them to take action and strike against the Nazis. In order to gather proof about war crimes and form a resistance army from the inside, Pileck volunteered to be captured by the Nazis and taken into Auschwitz. Of course, this was long before anyone knew that it would turn into a death camp responsible for over 1.1 million deaths.

Read my full review of The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather on LonesomeReader36 s Mike Mason480 8

An extremely powerful book. 385 pages that passed in a blink of an eye - well a day anyway. The story of Witold Pilecki, a Polish underground operative who infiltrates Auschwitz to try and tell the world what is going on there and lead an uprising. Unfortunately, he fails in both.

Whilst Pilecki managed to get reports out of the camp they were either not taken seriously initially. Or the allies minds were on other things. Opportunities to bomb the camp were not explored. Indeed the plight of the Jews across Europe at the time were not taken as seriously as they should have been. It is commented that the British lost a lot of face during WWI by using as propaganda the story that the Germans were using bodies to make soap. And that they needed more facts before making further faux pas. Even when thousands of Romanian Jews could have been returned. Britain was concerned of the implications of moving them to Palestine.

The scale of the Auschwitz operation is dehumanised by the countless statistics of death. Pilecki almost dies from typhoid many times. The descriptions of lice infestation reminded me of the recent book on Stalingrad I read. This time the typhus infested lice are used by the inmates to infect Nazi soldiers and the Kapo guards.

Pilecki finally manages to escape and survives the Warsaw uprising. Only to be executed by the Polish communists in 1947.

The book is very detailed but holds one’s attention throughout. The author paints pictures of suffering and bravery in a readable manner. There are excellent photographs and maps throughout as well as a glossary of characters and detailed index of references.

I don’t read enough non-fiction and every time I do I say I need to read more. I do.27 s1 comment Inna209 90

?? ???? ??? ?? ??????? ?????? ?????, ??????? ? ?????...26 s Emma988 1,064

In an act of near-incomprehensible bravery, Witold Pilecki volunteered to investigate Nazi crimes in Auschwitz. His charge: provide the intelligence that would force the Allied powers to pay attention to the ever more systemic Nazi machinery of imprisonment, slavery, and slaughter. Even in its most basic form, the task was spectacularly dangerous. Each stage of the plan involved the very real threat of death, from his initial arrest, through the transport, and finally the grinding daily life in the camp, where murder was everything from a means of control to a method of entertainment. But Witold wasn't a do-the-minimum kind of guy. Inside Auschwitz, he created and maintained an underground resistance network that worked to keep each other alive, gather information, and smuggle reports to the outside. His descriptions of life within the camp are horrifying, charting Auschwitz's transformation from prison to the epicentre of mass extermination.

In this meticulously researched and powerfully written book, Fairweather offers the reader a story of heroism made all the more extraordinary by Witold's just-doing-what-needs-to-be-done attitude.
Everyone should read it.


ARC via Netgalleynetgalley26 s Barry Pierce589 8,016

pretty ballsy move by the Costa Awards to name this 'book of the year' when it's essentially an account of the total incompetence displayed by the Allied powers and, especially, Britain.21st-century read-in-202017 s Robert SheardAuthor 5 books311

This is the story of Witold Pilecki, which remained lost for many years after the conclusion of WWII. Pilecki was a member of the Polish resistance who volunteered to get arrested and sent to Auschwitz before anyone–not even the Germans–knew what Auschwitz was to become. It recounts his years there, organizing an underground and trying to alert the world, then recounts his return to Warsaw to fight the Germans in their final stand in Poland, only to see the Soviets stroll in afterwards to install a communist government.

His years in Auschwitz were spent futilely trying to get anyone (especially England and the USA) to recognize what was happening there and to take action. It's a remarkable story about a man who gave up everything to try to rescue Poland from the madness, only to see his efforts time and again get ignored by those who could have done something about it. It's heartbreaking in so many ways.14 s Giannis139 28

???? ?????? ?? ????? ??????? ????????, ?? ???? ??????, ???? ??????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ??? ?????????? ???? ??? ????????. ?? ??? ??????? ?? ?????, ??? ????? ???????, ???? ???????? «????????»! ???? ??????????? ??? ???????? ??????? ???? ??????? ??? ???????? ???? ??????? ?? 1939 ??? ???????? ??????? ???????? ???? ????????? ??? ?????????????. ????? ??????? ????? ??? ???????, ? ????????? ???? ??????? ??? ?? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ??????????? ????????????, ???? ?? ???????? ?? ???????? ??????????? ??? ?? ??? ???????????????? ???? ????, ????? ?? ???????? ?? ??????????? ?? ?????????? ????? ?????????. ??? ? ???? ??? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ?????????? ?????????? ??? ?? ???????? ??????????? ???? ?? ?????? ?????? ?? ??????? ??? ????, ???? ?????. ??? ?? ????? ? ?????? ???????; ???? «hold my beer», ?? ??? ???! ?? ?? ??????? ? ?????????? ??? ????? ????, ??? ?????????? ?? ?? ??????, ?? ?? ??????? ??? ?? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ????, ?? ??????? ? ???????!

??? ?? ????????? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??? ???????. ??? ???? ????? ?????????? ??? ???????? ?? 1940 ???? ?? ???????? ???????? ??? ????????????, ????, ??????????? ??? ?????? ?????????? ??? ????????????, ???????? ???? ?????? ??? ???????????? ??? ??????????? ?????????, ??????? ??????????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ??? ???? ???, ??????????? ?? ???????????? ??????? ?????????, ???????? ?? 1943, ??????? ??? ???????? ?????????? ??? ?????????, ??? ??? ????? ?????????? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????????? ?? 1944, ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??? ??????. ???????? ??????, ???? ????????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????????? ??? ??????? ?????????? ??? ??? ???????;

???? ??? ???????? ???? ??? ????????, ???????? ??? ???? ???????? ?????, ? ????????? ??? ?????????? Jack Fairweather ???? ??? ?? ?????? ??? «? ?????????» ??? ?????????? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ???????? Gutenberg. ??? ?????????? ????????????? ??????, ?? ??????? ??????????? ?????, ??? ???????? ???? ??? ????????????? ???????? ???????????. ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?? ??????????? ??? ????!This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review13 s Joey219 92

WOW
Honestly I didn’t think I would enjoy this book very much. I mean, I knew it would be a good educational book but I really wasn’t convinced I myself would enjoy it, but boy I was wrong.
I opened this book to vivid detail and writing that instantly sucked me into the story. It didn’t fit into the stereotypical nonfiction cookie cutter.
I definitely think this is a book everyone should read at some point. So many want to just forget all the horrible things that happened during the Holocaust, and this book exposes hard truths about this time period.
Content:
A few swear words, although I was a tiny bit surprised at how clean this was. A few sexually suggestive comments.
Let me warn you guys, this book is graphic, and it is very hard to read. It exploits the atrocities and horrors these people went through, and does not shy away from the truth.
This book is not for anyone easily disturbed by violence.
Happy reading guys!
Autor del comentario:
=================================