The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8382457.stm

by dwynings • 17 years ago

48 20 17 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

colbyolson2• 17 years ago

Not exactly sure why this story is on HN, but it was interesting read nonetheless. A very courageous man he was to have done such a thing- twice.

YuriNiyazov• 17 years ago

I'd say that it qualifies under the "it teaches you somethinng about the world" clause.

aw3c2• 17 years ago

And hacking the real world. The mindset required is not that different.

sown2• 17 years ago

That's one hell of a hack.

cema• 17 years ago

It is. I think people may have modded you down because they thought you were being ironic.

xtho• 17 years ago

Or maybe because it doesn't contribute much to the discussion?

ajuc2• 17 years ago

Truly brave man. Another one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki - "Polish James Bond" - he voluntered to go to Auschwitz in 1940, made reports about what happened there, organized resistance in camp, stolen some German documents and escaped when nobody wanted to try and attack the camp (he was trying to persuade Aliants and Polish Home Army to do that, but they thought it wouldn't work).

Estragon• 17 years ago

"Thought it wouldn't work." Bah, they just didn't care. The Poles were just as virulently anti-Semitic as the Germans, and the Allies, if they'd given a damn, would have provided visas for Jewish refugees years before the war even started.

zby• 17 years ago

I think this was a bit more complicated:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski

In the summer of 1942 Karski was chosen by Cyryl Ratajski, the Polish Government's Delegate at Home, to perform a secret mission to prime minister Władysław Sikorski in London. Karski was to contact Sikorski as well as various other Polish politicians and inform them about Nazi atrocities in occupied Poland. In order to gather evidence, Karski was twice smuggled by Jewish underground leaders into the Warsaw Ghetto for the purpose of showing him firsthand what was happening to the Polish Jews. Also, disguised as a Ukrainian camp guard, he visited what he thought was Bełżec death camp.[2] (It is now believed that he actually saw a nearby sorting camp of Izbica)

In 1942 Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, as well as members of political parties such as the PPS, SN, SP, SL, Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was a major factor in informing the West.

In July 1943, Karski again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, and Stephen Wise. Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile. It is possible, however, that Karski's descriptions influenced FDR to create the War Refugee Board several months later in January 1944.

=============

You can say allies did not care, Poles were antisemitic, but there are Jews on the list of people he contacted.

viraptor• 17 years ago

> The Poles were just as virulently anti-Semitic as the Germans

There is so much wrong with this sentence, I don't even know where to start. Ok - maybe here: Jews were living in Poland on mostly the same laws as locals. They were separated and killed by Germans just because they came from Jewish families. Do you see the difference? I could write many things about families in Warsaw trying to keep runaways from ghetto in hiding, etc. but that doesn't even matter at this point...

Jews may have experienced lots of extreme nationalism in Poland (before the war) simply because of their numbers - but they were not put in death camps then!

p47• 17 years ago

In addition to viraptor's post. I want just add that for sure some Poles we're anti-Semitic. But labeling whole nation like this is a terrible mistake, which lead humanity to at least one holocaust. In 1930 Jews were 11% of Poland's population. There we're 116 Jewish newspapers. In September 1939, around 120k Jews fight with Germans in Polish Army (as officers as well, please find officer in Whermaht or in SS) against Germans and Russians. All pow's with Jewish ancestors we're murdered by Germans :-/, only because they we're Jewish.

Well what my point is, you cannot say things like this, it's just wrong. You're harming a memory of wonderful and amazing cultural contribution.

I would gladly show you Łódź or Kraków in Poland, so you can witness with your eyes, how wonderful we're coexistence of Poles and Jews.

nkassis2• 17 years ago

Wow, incredible story. That guy must have some incredible nerves of Tungsten.

Zarathu• 17 years ago

How is this relevant?

I've been mentally bombarded enough with WW2.

norswap• 17 years ago

There is something that puzzles me in all this : why didn't he spoke of it earlier ? Especially since it's advertised that he did it "so he could tell others the truth".

Perhaps he spoke about it and it didn't catch media's attention.

Anyway, if it's true then it sure is very brave, and crazy. I mean infiltrating an extermination camp ? You gotta be insane (or suicidary) to try something like this.

joeycfan• 17 years ago

Two things.

First, this is irrelevant here. The is about geekdom, remember? And since Holocaust Remembrance Day in the media is yesterday, today and tomorrow, we don't need any more reminding.

Second, the reason they didn't bomb the camps is that they knew full well that right in the middle of a life-and-death struggle, the Nazis were actually diverting who-know-how-many SS soldiers and their immense support systems to running these camps.

The war, which tettered on a tipping point several times. might have been way different if those soldiers has been allowed to actually soldier. The camps held them down as effectively as several armored divisions.

ajuc2• 17 years ago

Camps would be even better at holding soldiers if a few planes bombed them, and some millions of Jews/Poles/Russians/Gypsies/Ukrainians/Muslims/Homosexualists, and other "subhumans" would be free. Nazists would have to catch them again, make these camps defended better, fight with the people that were escaping, etc.

The more chaos on enemy teritory, the better for me, right?

They (England etc) just didn't believe raports about that camps, and anyway didn't cared that much about some Jews and Eastern Europeans. They showed the same in Jalta.

The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz

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