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Albright, a biographical essay by Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an afterword by Zbigniew Brzezinski, previously unpublished photos, notes, further reading, and a glossary-is an apt legacy for this hero of conscience during the most fraught and fragile moment in modern history.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