The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland. 1943

The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland. London: Hutchinson for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, [1943].

A very early official announcement of the Holocaust addressed to the United Nations. Using false documents Polish army Captain Witold Pilecki let himself be captured, and entered Auschwitz, where he spent two years gathering information about the mass extermination of Jews. His reports, which provided the evidential basis for this and other appeals to the UN by the government of Poland, were generally met with disbelief, and his repeated calls to liberate the camp, where he organized prisoners, fell on deaf ears. Pilecki escaped after almost 1000 days in Auschwitz. This report was written in 1942 and printed in 1943 'in the hope that the civilised world will draw the appropriate conclusion, the Polish Government desires to bring to the notice of the public, by means of the present White Paper, these renewed German efforts at mass extermination, with the employment of fresh horrifying methods'.

Octavo (216 x 140mm). Title printed in red. Stapled, as issued (staples rusted).

-