Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

by Witold Pilecki, Jarek Garlinski (Translator), Michael Schudrich (Foreword)

4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 · rating details · 55 ratings · 23 reviews

In 1940, the Polish Underground wanted to know what was happening inside the recently opened Auschwitz concentration camp. Polish army officer Witold Pilecki volunteered to be arrested by the Germans and reported from inside the camp. His intelligence reports, smuggled out in 1941, were among the first eyewitness accounts of Auschwitz atrocities: the extermination of Sovie...more

Paperback, 392 pages

Published April 2012 by Aquila Polonica Publishing

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

World War Two Non Fiction

86th out of 202 books — 150 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 311)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 09, 2013 Garryvivianne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Story of Witold Pilecki who deliberately walked into a German round up of Polish Jews so he could relate back to everybody the atrocities & what was happening in the camps. Amazing that he survived & was able to get papers & notes smuggled out. He relates how you had to try to remain strong in order to work to survive in the camps. When your health gave out, the Germans had no use for you. He was able to get together a number of groups of his underground operation that were able to h...more

like · see review

Aug 08, 2012 Uwe Hook rated it 5 of 5 stars

"When God created the human being, God had in mind that we all should be like Captain Witold Pilecki.

"The Auschwitz Volunteer" is the single most extraordinary tale of heroism you will ever read.

To say that Witold Pilecki was a "man's man" is to understate the case considerably. We don't have words to adequately convey the kind of heroism Pilecki displayed. Language is a common possession and Pilecki was entirely uncommon. Witold Pilecki is one of the greatest heroes our species has produced. Y...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 28, 2013 Orion rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

The Auschwitz Volunteer is a newly available English translation of a report written by Witold Pilecki, a Polish military officer, in the late summer of 1945 about the 3 years he spent inside the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940-1943. Auschwitz was young then: Pilecki was on the second transport of prisoners to what had been a Polish cavalry base converted by the Germans into a camp for Polish prisoners. When the first transport was sent, Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate the prison, organ...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 Eva Leger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: b-non-fiction, holocaust-wwii

Definitely worth reading. I borrowed this from the library and was horrified to find halfway through the book that someone had torn out a page. It was a page with a full page photograph, that much I could tell, and it's more of that someone would actually do that to a book - any book - than anything I "missed".
Regardless, the photos are amazing, as with any book of this nature. I just stare at the faces and try to imagine what they could have been thinking at that exact moment.
Pilecki's writing...more Definitely worth reading. I borrowed this from the library and was horrified to find halfway through the book that someone had torn out a page. It was a page with a full page photograph, that much I could tell, and it's more of that someone would actually do that to a book - any book - than anything I "missed".
Regardless, the photos are amazing, as with any book of this nature. I just stare at the faces and try to imagine what they could have been thinking at that exact moment.
Pilecki's writing is a lot like that - only he gives you the insider knowledge in a lot of instances as to what he, and some others, were thinking at various times.
I can't begin to imagine doing the things Pilecki willingly did. When I think of Pilecki, and men and women like him, I realize that the men and women of today, including myself, are hardly capable of dealing with anything.
Several layout maps are included, along with multiple appendices. Appendix 1 is a glossary of terms, 2 is a list of positions and ranks, 3 is the people and places Pilecki mentions throughout the book, and so on. Basically, the information included within is formatted in such a way that if anything can't be seen right off the bat all you have to do is flip a few pages and you can easily find anything. Appendix 4 is an approximate timeline of Pilecki's movements and actions as told in his report. The index is nothing if not thorough. There are even 21 discussion questions in the back of the book.
The translator's introductory note and the publisher's note tell about the way Pilecki's report was turned into the book and it's worth reading. I agree with everything they did and did not to, as to changes, and am in awe of how they managed to bring this about in the manner they did.
The publisher's note includes a brief but interesting little lesson on the Polish language which helped me immensely when learning how certain names are pronounced. For instance, Witold Pilecki is pronounced VEE-told pee-LETS-kee. I appreciated this addition more than I can say. There is also a list of selected highlights from Pilecki's report included in the beginning of the book.
It's most definitely worth reading in my opinion. Personal accounts are among the most important when it comes to the Holocaust and World War II and I'm thankful for each and every single one.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 14, 2012 Terri Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-autobiography, history, nonfiction

This book is very easy to read because the writer Witold Pilecki used such clear writing since he was not writing a book but instead was writing a series of reports which have been gathered into this book . It is also one of the hardest books too read that I have ever picked up because he was writing so clearly about the day to day realities of Auschwitz, a place run by subhuman monsters with no code of ethics and no respect for other people.

This is a unique piece of history from the 20th centu...more This book is very easy to read because the writer Witold Pilecki used such clear writing since he was not writing a book but instead was writing a series of reports which have been gathered into this book . It is also one of the hardest books too read that I have ever picked up because he was writing so clearly about the day to day realities of Auschwitz, a place run by subhuman monsters with no code of ethics and no respect for other people.

This is a unique piece of history from the 20th century. Witold Pilecki was a decent, honorable man in the Polish military who literally walked into a Nazi roundup in Warsaw, Poland deliberately as part of the underground mission to smuggle out intelligence about this new and horrible concentration camp and to build a resistance movement and organization among the prisoners. Witold Pilecki walked the walk.

Beginning fall 1941, he smuggled intelligence reports out to the Allies, and witnessed the horrors such as wholesale slaughter of women and children, the building of the gas chambers, and the painful extermination of prisoners from both genders, all ages, all religions, all income levels, all nationalities.

Imagine seeing people killed by driving planks of wood through their guts. People killed by putting a shovel in their throat and standing in the shovel. People killed by driving a huge needle into their hearts. People sent into a gas chamber thinking they were there for a shower only to find poisonous gas being spewed into the room instead of water, gas that slowly suffocated them to death in panic and agony. There were medical experiments where women had so much radiation burns to their ovaries and uterus, they were burned to death internally. Imagine seeing all of this day by day for years.

Pilecki himself pondered this and wrote about how hard it was for those who did manage to get out to live normal lives. If you have seen what these people saw, how can you ever have patience with a teen girl who thinks it is the end of the world if she can't have a party or someone whining about prices of food (if you had only had a bit of bread and broth daily for years while being expected to do hard labor in subfreezing temperatures) or even whining about ordinary aches and pains in light of the horrors faced by inmates at Auschwitz and the other counts. Frankly, I would be ashamed to complain about anything at all after reading this book. Nothing that could happen to me could even begin to be something I could pity myself over after seeing what these people went through.

As a long time animal rescuer, I have to note that in the United States in the 21st century, the public animal control agencies and shelters murder innocent and defenseless dogs and cats by the very same methods used in Auschwitz- heartstick (stab in the heart with no anesthesia then throw on a pile of the dying to suffer in agony and die) and suffocation to death in panic and agony in gas chambers. We acknowledge that this is cruel and inhumane treatment yet subject animals to it daily for the crime of being unwanted by a human. We have not moved one inch past Auschwitz and we are no better than the cruel Nazis who subjected its prisoners to this treatment as long as we stand by and allow such a thing.

This was a report written to Pilecki's superiors in the Polish Army and they had asked for a clear and dispassionate report but as he said, he is human and dealing with heartbreaking cruelty and abuse. No normal human can be indifferent to such a thing.

Pilecki survived Auschwitz, in fact, he escaped, but he died too soon because the Soviets were just as bad as the Nazis and treated people the same way. He died as he had lived- trying to fight for the right and for justice. Prisoner 4859 (Pilecki) is my idea of a real man, my idea of a real hero. He went voluntarily where no one made him go and he made a difference.

I had to wait to read this book. Interlibrary loan would not send it since it was "too new" so I had to talk my local library into buying it and then wait for them to get it. It was well worth the wait.

The black and white photos included bring the people and places of the book to life.

A lifechanging read. Do read it. You will learn more about history and you will learn more about being human.I only wish I could give it 10 stars.

(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Dec 13, 2012 Eleanor is currently reading it

All the movies I've seen about the horrors of the German concentration camps did not prepare me for Pilecki's accounts of the brutality that occurred. One example: burying inmates headfirst in gravel pits and placing bets on how long their legs would continue waving in the air. This book is not for the squeamish. And that brings me to one of Pilecki's major observations about survival.
"The bitter truth," he writes, is that intellectuals have few survival skills. Many lacked the willpower to eat...more

like · see review

Apr 15, 2013 Laurel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have read many histories of WWII death camps, written by Jewish authors, either as memoirs or from a historical perspective. This is the first memoir I have read by a man that was not Jewish, rather identified as a polish man jailed for political crimes (?). He was a member of the underground resistance that chose to be imprisoned in Auschwitz. His perspective on the atrocities he witnessed was very different from my prior readings that focused primarily on the Jewish plight. While he did incl...more

like · see review

May 11, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: postcrossing-recommendations

Witold Pilecki, married middle age father, volunteers to get himself arrested and sent to Auschwitz (September 1940) to be able to gather information for the Polish Underground & help organize the resistance within the camp.

This book is the English translation of his 1945 written report to the Polish High Command. Murdered by Russian Communists in 1948 his name was effectively purged from Polish history until after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This relatively unknown (in English at least)...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 16, 2012 Laura Kuhn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, wwii

The text provides a view of Auschwitz that is rarely seen. Mr. Pilecki was in the camp early in its inception and he was there as a Pole and Catholic. As a member of the Polish army (and subsequent underground), he allowed himself to be arrested in order to build cells in the camp. This book is the third report her wrote detailing his experiences, and he was executed by Soviets before he had a chance to revise it in anyway. The style is raw and in diary form. Great supplemental material in intro...more

like · see review

Dec 11, 2012 Chris Wolak rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Auschwitz Volunteer is the best book I read in 2012.

If you're a reader of history, WWII, Poland, the Holocaust, or spy novels go & buy this book or buy it for someone you know who is into these subjects. You won't regret it.

Pilecki's story is astonishing. He was a military man and member of the Polish resistance who volunteered to be taken in a round-up to the new Nazi concentration camp: Auschwitz. The camp was established in May 1940. On the 19th of September 1940 at 6 am, Pilecki ste...more The Auschwitz Volunteer is the best book I read in 2012.

If you're a reader of history, WWII, Poland, the Holocaust, or spy novels go & buy this book or buy it for someone you know who is into these subjects. You won't regret it.

Pilecki's story is astonishing. He was a military man and member of the Polish resistance who volunteered to be taken in a round-up to the new Nazi concentration camp: Auschwitz. The camp was established in May 1940. On the 19th of September 1940 at 6 am, Pilecki stepped into what would be the second group of inmates taken from Warsaw to the camp. If you're jaded, you might think, "Oh, well, they didn't really know what to expect, so maybe it was just like any volunteer assignment during wartime." Well, you could think that, but then consider the fact that Pilecki stayed in the camp for almost three years (he estimated 947 days). THREE YEARS he voluntarily stayed in Auschwitz to continue his mission which was to gather intelligence and set up a network of resistance within the camp. "Beyond Bravery," indeed.

I'm sure no one would have condemned him had he chosen to escape sooner, but Pilecki was a man who took his duty to his country seriously. He was also motivated by his Catholic faith and so saw both the Nazis and the Communists as threats not only to his country, but to his spiritual life as well.

Pilecki's account is a bare bones military report, but it reads beautifully, if I may use such a descriptor for this horrific subject. His story has such a big impact perhaps precisely because he doesn't go into great detail. Like a good Cather or Hemingway novel, we're left to fill in our own details which makes "the story" that much more powerful. Much credit, of course, goes to the translator, Jarek Garlinski. There is also the fact that in 2012 we might not need much detail to round things out for ourselves after having seen movies and read other books about Nazi concentration camps.

But even if you've read many accounts of the concentration camps, I doubt you've ever read anything like this. Because Pilecki is reporting, because he's there with a mission, he sees things and talks about seemingly familiar behavior and situations in a way that makes them seem new--you see how shocking the behavior of the guards is and how tactics change as the mission of the camp itself changes. You see the development and evolution of Auschwitz as it unfolds. This is a strictly chronological report so you're taken from the early days of the camp when extreme violence and cruelty were the norm to the more "mature" camp of the final solution's extreme dehumanizing systematization. Along the way is a lot of fascinating information about how the inmates ran the camp.

As a kid I would have liked to have known the story of Witold Pilecki and I hope someone writes a book for kids based on his experience (this book is intended, of course, for mature audiences). My Dad was Polish and I grew up in a predominantly Polish neighborhood in Cicero, IL which butts up to the west side of Chicago. On the other hand, my Mom is from Germany. (My parents met in Germany in the late 1950s when my dad was stationed there.) It wasn't until I was in high school and became a student of history that I realized why people sometimes said my parents were an interesting combination.

The version of history I learned in school was that Nazi Germany rolled over Poland and there was no resistance. And the version of concentration camps that I learned is that they were set up to eradicate Jews and that the world didn't know about them prior to 1945. Pilecki's story offers a new narrative to counter these old simplified stories as well as bringing to light the horrors that Poles faced after the war (stories that were not necessarily intentionally "wrong," but that didn't have a multitude of contributing voices, the benefit of decades of research, or new information coming out of the former Soviet Union).

One of the reasons we in the West haven't heard of Pilecki's bravery is what happened to him after Word War II ended:
After Pilecki's escape from Auschwitz he continued to work in the Polish resistance. At war's end he worked against the communist regime in Poland. He was captured and tortured by the Polish secret police and tried by a military court that found him guilty of "spying and preparing armed attacks on members of the Polish secret police," charges he denied. Pilecki was executed by the Polish communist government on May 25, 1948.

Pilecki was fully exonerated in the 1990s and is now considered a hero in modern Poland. The publication of The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery is the first time his story is being shared with the English speaking world and I hope it finds a wide audience.

As Norman Davies writes in the introduction to The Auschwitz Volunteer, "If ever there was an Allied hero who deserved to be remembered and celebrated, this was a person with few peers" (xiii).

Source: review copy (I follow a couple Polish heritage/cultural sites and this summer saw the book advertised on one of them and immediately requested a copy from the publisher, which they graciously sent me and for which I thank them.)(less)

like · see review

Feb 11, 2013 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, history-nonfiction, non-fiction

This book reads--and in fact probably is--much closer to a military dispatch (or debriefing if you will) than a cohesive narrative. It's a cut and dried "I recruited X,Y,Z and we infiltratated 1,2 and 3 then I recruited A, B, and C and they infiltrated 4, 5, and 6...". Which makes sense, when you realize this is a copy of the report Pilecki wrote his superiors after his escape. He wasn't trying to make the story pretty, he was trying to include as many details as possible. The terms glossaries i...more

like · see review

Aug 12, 2012 Kayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This man's journals of his time in Auschwitz. He was VERY lucky that he wasn't Jewish. He was certainly treated brutally, but he stayed alive 3 years in the camp. He wouldn't have made it out of the train yard had he been Jewish. Brutally frank, this book objectively reports the atrocities that he witnessed and endured.

like · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Jason Walker rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't think there is another story like this in any other war or prisoner condition that I have ever read about. No one volunteers, escapes, volunteers to go back and so on. It reminds me that courage is the first virtue. Without courage, as Maya Angelou stated, we cannot practice any other virtue.

like · see review

Mar 12, 2013 Sara Klawikowski rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very interesting perspective; and "insider's view" into one of the most horrific places in human history. With my last name and BK's heritage, I also found the Polish "pride" quite fascinating ( and incidentally, also provided me a great glimpse into how solidarity may have taken hold). I highly recommend it.

like · see review

Oct 23, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was humbled while reading this book. It was moving to read of this man's thoughts and actions while living in hell - he called it hell and I believe him.

To think that the old USSR and so many other dictatorial regimes still do this today is scary.

like · see review

Apr 05, 2013 Yvette rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was worth reading. It was quite informative about how the prison camps work from the inside, although, the numbering system the author used for different people was a bit tiresome.

like · see review

Jul 16, 2012 Kandice Newren rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a book that was recommended by one of the book blogs I follow. It was interesting to see how Auschwitz was started and how it transformed over about three years. It was heartbreaking to realize all that was happening in that camp and the cruelty of others. It makes me want to learn more about the Polish resistance during the war, so maybe that's where I'll go next. The writing, although written some time after escaping the camp, tells the story well. There isn't a lot of flowery writing...more

like · see review

Sep 02, 2012 larry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great read. Reports from a man who volunteered to go into the concentration camp and his history there....and he survived and escaped! Great book!

like · see review

Dec 14, 2012 Lenore rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very powerful inside account of life in a concentration camp written by a man who voluntarily joined a group destined for a life in hell. Not a book for the faint of heart.

like · see review

Jun 18, 2013 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Love it when the "little" man/woman, stands up and actually does what his conscience yells at him to do. One one side you have the Nazis who did exactly that and then You have the people described here. Its a heart wrenching book. And it took me a while to stop crying every time I thought about it and tryed to review it.

One of my heroes Michele Colucci alias Coluche once said: Bravery consists not in saying what you think, but in doing what you say. This is what the "few" did. Read it for yours...more

like · see review

Jun 11, 2012 Anne-Marie Whisnant rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am so moved by Pilecki's account. There is no truer heroism than enduring death around you on a daily basis and narrowly escaping it yourself. An absolute must-read. Inspiring, gripping, horrific at turns but also heartwarming. The title says it all - he was 'beyond' brave.

like · see review

Apr 13, 2013 Edward rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting story about the inside of Auschwitz.

like · see review

Mar 28, 2013 Jessica marked it as on-my-radar

Shelves: biography-memoir, nonfiction-other

There's a story about Pilecki in the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/internatio.... It sounds utterly enthralling.

like · see review

Jun 15, 2013 Mark Gura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Jun 14, 2013 Kamil marked it as to-read

Jun 08, 2013 Cassie marked it as to-read

Jun 08, 2013 Char Power marked it as to-read

Jun 07, 2013 ReaderTMN marked it as to-read

Jun 01, 2013 Katy St. Clair marked it as to-read

May 21, 2013 Tim marked it as to-read

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (1)

Genres

History

13 users

Non Fiction

11 users

World War II > Holocaust

6 users

History > World War II

3 users

Cultural > Poland

3 users

Biography Memoir

2 users

Biography

2 users

Autobiography > Memoir

2 users

See top shelves...

About Witold Pilecki

During World War I, in 1918, Pilecki joined a ZHP Scout section of the Polish self-defense units under General Władysław Wejtko in the Wilno area. When his sector of the front was overrun by the Bolsheviks, his unit for a time conducted partisan warfare behind enemy lines. Pilecki then joined the regular Polish Army and took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920, serving under Major Jerzy Dąb...more

More about Witold Pilecki...

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Auschwitz Vol...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery
avg rating	preview: The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery Goodreads rating: 4.33 (55 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13415529-the-auschwitz-volunteer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1340596030l/13415529.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13415529-the-auschwitz-volunteer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Witold Pilecki[/url]

The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (1)

Genres

About Witold Pilecki

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Auschwitz Vol...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)