Pilecki’s ‘Auschwitz Report’ published in German
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
20.08.2013 12:35
The ’Auschwitz Report’ by Captain Witold Pilecki, the Pole who escaped from the Nazi WW II-era death camp, has been published for the first time in a German translation.
photo - wikipedia
Published by the Zurich-based Orell Fuessli, ‘The Auschwitz Volunteer, secret reports by prisoner Witold Pilecki is based on the recent English-language edition of the last version of the report compiled by Pilecki in the summer of 1945.
In September 1940 Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz.
In 1943, having escaped from the camp, he reached Warsaw, and later fought in the Warsaw Rising and went to Italy to join the Second Polish Corps.
In October 1945 he was sent by the Polish intelligence to Poland but was captured by the communists, accused of spying and executed in in May 1948.
In its review of the German-language publication, the German daily Die Welt expressed satisfaction with the fact that at long last, almost seven decades after it was written, Pilecki’s report has been made available to German-speaking readers but is critical of the publisher’s decision to devote only a few lines of the text to Captain Pilecki’s plight in post-war, communist Poland. (mk/pg)