THE VOLUNTEER : ONE MAN, AN UNDERGROUND ARMY, AND THE SECRET MISSION TO DESTROY AUSCHWITZ
by Jack Fairweather

Who would ever think of volunteering yourself to be a prisoner in Auschwitz? You would have to be out of your mind. Unless, of course, there was a special mission to know exactly what was going on. There was such an individual who voluntarily got captured, had a fake identity and was sent to this Nazi camp. His name was Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter. The underground wanted him to find out what had happened to their fellow countrymen, and see whether they were still alive or not. Not only was he to collect information, but he was told to implement an attack within without the Germans knowing anything about it.
For two and a half years, Pilecki gathered together an underground army that destroyed facilities, killed Nazi informants, and amassed evidence of horrendous abuse and mass murder. Then he discovered that the ultimate goal of the Nazis was to have Auschwitz become the core for the extermination of Europe's Jews. Pilecki realized that he had to get this information out to the West. The only way to do it was the impossible: he had to escape from the camp.
With all of the books that I have read about the Holocaust and Auschwitz, I never heard of any kind of resistance fighting inside the camp. How these weak men (they did slave labor for the Germans) had the strength and wherewithal to stand up to the Nazis is mind-boggling. And why have we not heard about Witold Pilecki before? Thanks to Poland's postwar Communist government, his name and historical record were completely expunged. Until now. Author Jack Fairweather has written a phenomenal story that keeps you riveted to your seat. Pilecki was an average man who risked his life against all odds to help his compatriots. He is one truly spectacular hero.
Very highly recommended.