Auschwitz Uprising Impossible Lewis

The Mammoth Book of True War Stories, by Jon E. Lewis. 1999

An Insurrection in Auschwitz Was Impossible. Potential Outside Guerilla Support Was Also Too Weak

Some of the most fascinating chapters, in my opinion, include the ones on the Doolittle raid on Tokyo, the dam busting of German dams, the German fiasco at Stalingrad, and survival of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

THE GREAT ESCAPE

There is an outstanding chapter on Roger Bushell, the organizer of the Great Escape. Bushell had originally escaped from Dulag Luft and, using his knowledge of the ski areas near Switzerland, almost made it to freedom. He was then sent to Stalag Luft III, where he organized the Great Escape, and was one of the 76 escapees, even though he knew that if he was caught he would be shot. That is what happened to him, along with 49 of the recaptured escapees. 3 escapees made it to freedom.

WITOLD PILECKI’S UNPRECEDENTED HEROISM RECOUNTED

This book includes a chapter, authored by M. R. D. Foot, on the espionage exploits of Witold Pilecki, a Pole. (pp. 389-400). It is one of the few English-language accounts of his daring work. Two minor errors, however, need to be corrected. The number of those murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau was about 1.5 million, not 4 million as listed. (p. 392). Foot is correct about the fact that the Polish guerrillas got only a total of 600 tons of arms/ammunition/supplies airdropped by the British and Americans, as against 10,000 tons each to their Yugoslavian and French counterparts, but he blames this gross disparity on the distances involved. (p. 395). This is, at best, a half-truth. British bombers proved capable of delivering a sizeable load of bombs on Koenigsberg (East Prussia), which was even further from England, or Brindisi, Italy, than German-occupied Poland. The main motive for the meager airdrops was the desire not to offend the Soviets who, of course, had no interest in a strong non-Communist Polish Underground.

Witold Pilecki, a Polish officer in the ill-fated 1939 war, was hunted by the Germans for that reason alone. He actually wanted to be sent to Auschwitz in order to set up an espionage/resistance ring there. He got his wish. Using a chain of contacts, he informed the Polish Underground, and then London, of what was going on in the camp. In time, after the mass gassing of Jews had begun, news had reached London, but was disbelieved because the Germans were considered too civilized a people do to such a thing. (p. 394). Hopes of setting up an armed insurrection in the camp faded because it was too strongly guarded by the Germans, and guerrillas in the general area of the camp were too weak to wage effective combat.

There were, however, a series of successful escapes from Auschwitz, and Pilecki was one of them. Witold Pilecki fought in the Poles’ Warsaw Uprising of 1944. He managed to eventually flee westward and join Anders’ Army in Italy. Soon after the war, he was sent on a mission to Soviet-occupied Poland as a representative of the lawful Polish government in exile in London. Having cheated death at the hands of the Nazis many times, Pilecki was murdered by the Communists in 1948. No one knows where he is buried. (p. 400).