THE MASS EXTERMINATION OF JEWS IN GERMAN OCCUPIED POLAND: NOTE ADDRESSED TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE UNITED NATIONS ON DECEMBER 10TH, 1942, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
London, New York; Published on Behalf of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Hutchinson & Co., [1943]. Item #43453
1st edition. Original illustrated red and white paper wrappers. 8vo. 16 pages. 22 cm. National Government Publication. Printed in red and black ink. Includes a note by Polish Foreign Minister Edward Raczynski and speeches by Deputy Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikolajczyk.
The official 16-page diplomatic publication from December 1942 by the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, marking a turning point in international understanding of the Nazi destruction of the Jews of Europe.
Jan Karski, a courier for the Polish Underground, had smuggled microfilmed evidence and intelligence out of occupied Poland to London. This raw intelligence, gathered from his time secretly inside the Warsaw Ghetto and the Izbica transit camp, formed the core of the facts published in the booklet.
“In October 1942, at the height of the destruction of Polish Jewry, [Jan] Karski [born Jan Kozielewski] was ordered to clandestinely go to the West and deliver a report on the situation of occupied Poland to the Polish government-in-exile in London. The situation of the Jews in Poland was to be one section of that report. Since the government in exile was concerned with the internal politics of Poland's underground parties, Karski held meetings with the different factions, including the Jewish Zionist and the Jewish Socialist Bund movements.
Thus, shortly before his departure, Karski met with two Jewish leaders who asked him to inform the world’s statesmen of the desperate plight of Polish Jewry and of the hopelessness of their situation. Their message was: ‘Our entire people will be destroyed.’
The Jewish leaders' appeals touched Karski and he decided to see things with his own eyes in order to make his report. With great risk to his life, he was smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto and into a camp in the Lublin area. The horrors he witnessed marked him deeply and propelled him to become not only the messenger of the Polish underground, but to concentrate on giving voice to the suffering of the dying Jews.
In November 1942, Karski reached London, delivered the report to the Polish government-in-exile, and set out to meet Winston Churchill, other politicians, journalists, and public figures. Upon completing his mission, Karski went on to the United States, where he met with President Roosevelt and other dignitaries, and tried in vain to stir up public opinion against the massacre of the Jews. In 1944, while in the United States, Karski wrote a book on the Polish Underground (Story of a Secret State), with a long chapter on the Jewish Holocaust in Poland.
After the war, Karski stayed in the United States where he was later appointed Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC.…
On 2 June 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Karski as Righteous Among the Nations” (Yad Vashem).
Leading Holocaust scholar Lucy Dawidowicz cites the booklet in her now classic work, “The Holocaust and the Historians” (Harvard, 1983, p. 167); the report could not be more explicit in its description of the horrors nor in its plea for help:
"The new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm the fact that the German authorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewish population of Poland and of the many thousands of Jews whom the German authorities have departed to Poland from Western and Central European countries and from the German Reich itself. The Polish Government considers it their duty to bring to the knowledge of the Governments of all civilised countries the following fully authenticated information received from Poland during recent weeks, which indicates all too plainly the new methods of extermination adopted by the German authorities."
The report elaborates: "The actual process of deportation was carried out with appalling brutality. At the appointed hour on each day the German police cordoned off a block of houses selected for clearance, entered the back yard and fired their guns at random, as a signal for all to leave their homes and assemble in the yard. Anyone attempting to escape or to hide was killed on the spot. No attempt was made by the Germans to keep families together. Wives were torn from their husbands and children from their parents. Those who appeared frail or infirm were carried straight to the Jewish cemetery to be killed and buried there.
On the average 50-100 people were disposed of in this way daily. After the contingent was assembled, the people were packed forcibly into cattle trucks to the number of 120 in each truck, which had room for forty. The trucks were then locked and sealed. The Jews were suffocating for lack of air. The floors of the trucks were covered with quicklime and chlorine. As far as is known, the trains were dispatched to three localities – Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor, to what the reports describe as ‘Extermination camps.’
The very method of transport was deliberately calculated to cause the largest possible number of casualties among the condemned Jews. It is reported that on arrival in camp the survivors were stripped naked and killed by various means, including poison gas and electrocution. The dead were interred in mass graves dug by machinery."
Read more about the singular importance of this publication at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mass_Extermination_of_Jews_in_German_Occupied_Poland# .
In 2020, Polish Postal authorities chose this very publication to illustrate their official first day cover honoring righteous Poles who had saved Jews during the Holocaust (see illustration).
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 - Jews - Poland. World War, 1939-1945 - Poland - Atrocities. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Poland. Jews - Poland. OCLC: 234118765.
Touch of staining at staples, without the rust almost always seen in other surviving copies. Very Good condition. A copy with rust stains sold in 2018 at auction for over £6,000. Rare and very important. (B)(HOLO2-97-48-MMXRLADFACC).
Price: $3,750.00