We look at the man who wanted to go into Auschwitz – The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather.
The Volunteer – the blurb
In the Summer of 1940, after the Nazi occupation of Poland, an underground operative called Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands of people being interned at a new concentration camp on the border of the Reich.
His mission was to report on Nazi crimes and raise a secret army to stage an uprising. The name of the detention center — Auschwitz.
It was only after arriving at the camp that he started to discover the Nazi’s terrifying plans. Over the next two and half years, Witold forged an underground army that smuggled evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Auschwitz. His reports from the camp were to shape the Allies response to the Holocaust – yet his story was all but forgotten for decades.
This is the first major account to draw on unpublished family papers, newly released archival documents and exclusive interviews with surviving resistance fighters to show how he brought the fight to the Nazis at the heart of their evil designs.
The result is an enthralling story of resistance and heroism against the most horrific circumstances, and one man’s attempt to change the course of history.
Who in their right mind?
That was my initial thought when picking up The Volunteer. It was Costa book of the year in 2019 (I’m that far behind in my reading) and being eternally drawn to the events of World War Two I was bound to read it at some point. I struggled to get my head round why a man, a husband, a father would volunteer. At the time he entered, Auschwitz was not the death camp it became known for yet it was a hard labor camp and conditions were extreme. How Witold survived for as long as he did was a miracle. How he was never uncovered or ratted on a second.
Witold was Polish and his loyalty to his county was fascinating. I think I’m right in saying if Poland hadn’t been involved he would not have volunteered. This is not to take anything away from his actions but one does wonder how determined he would have been to help the Jews if they had all been Russian and not Poles.
How much did they know?
I’ve read many an account of Auschwitz yet Fairweather still managed to find something new to bring to the table. The idea that a resistance could possibly be formed in those circumstances is almost unthinkable. It would have been brave to have simply daydreamed about it. New horrors were exposed – the Christmas ‘presents’ under the tree was a new low in Nazi behavior. But what I haven’t really read about before is how much the outside world, particularly England and America, knew of Auschwitz during the war. Fairweather probes at this and the results leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth. More reading needed on this point me thinks.
Was it worth it?
The big question remains – how much of a difference did Witold make? A question no doubt struggled with during his lifetime. There was a tendency by Fairweather to paint Witold as slightly saint like. And whilst there is no denying his determination or conviction he cheated on his wife (probably) so wouldn’t quite have made a canon. I found his death profoundly sad, pointless even. The book however isn’t and raises some very uncomfortable questions – could we, should we have done more.