Story of a Secret State

Jan Karski was a Polish soldier, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. In 1940–1943 he acted as a Home Army informer to the Polish government-in-exile and to Poland's Western Allies, relaying information to them about the situation in German-occupied Poland. He reported about the state of Poland, its many competing resistance factions, and also about Germany's destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and its operation of extermination camps on Polish soil that were murdering Jews, Poles, and others. One of his reports, "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", has been described as "one of the first accounts of the Holocaust and a desperate cry for help and rescue for the Jews". In 1982 he was recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.). While adhering to the American wartime pro-Soviet propaganda, the book was also not to be promoted by the Polish government-in-exile or any other Polish-American institutions. Although Karski was the main author and the sole credited author of the work, he closely collaborated with the bilingual translator Krystyna Sokołowska (who translated his Polish manuscript to English) and the final script was copyedited by William Poster. The four hundred odd page manuscript was finished in July 1944 and published in the United States in November that year. == The book ==

The book describes Karski's experiences beginning in 1939, the year of German invasion of Poland. Shortly after the occupation of Poland, Karski joined the Polish resistance, and became a courier, transporting messages from occupied Poland to the Polish government-in-exile, first in France and later in the United Kingdom. The final chapters of the book describe Karski's travels through Western Europe, and his meetings with many journalists and politicians in non-occupied Western countries, including Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and President Roosevelt in the United States. Karski described his goals as to "reproduce objectively what he saw, what he experienced, and what he was bidden to tell about those in Poland and the other occupied countries of the world". == Editions and translations ==

The book was first published in English in the US (by Houghton Mifflin) in 1944 and in the UK in 1945. The book received another English edition in 2011. The book was quickly translated to Swedish (1945) and Icelandic (1945). It also received a French translation in 1948 (and a revised one in 2010).), Dutch, Spanish and Catalan.'''''''''' Due to a Soviet Union propaganda campaign against Karski, some translations were cancelled or delayed (these included among others Hebrew and Arabic). The Russian edition was finally published in 2012. Some later editions in English use longer titles and/or subtitles, such as Courier from Poland: The Story of a Secret State and Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World.'''''''''' == Reception ==

Upon publication, the book sold more than 15,000 copies in the first two weeks, and overall, more than 350,000 copies in the United States, and was described as a bestseller in 1944. It received generally positive reviews in American mainstream press of that time, with coverage in outlets such as The New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and Time. Another review from that year was penned by W. J. R. for International Affairs. The reviewer praised the work for explaining "the structure of the machinery of resistance", and predicted that it would become a classic. Peter Conrad reviewed the new edition of this book for The Guardian in 2011, criticizing its writing style as "political melodrama" in the style of "a 40s espionage thriller", arguing that the outdated writing style obscures the valuable historical account of the underlying history, though at the same time he noted that parts of the book "resemble scenes tantalisingly directed by Hitchcock". On the other hand, Nigel Jones, who reviewed it that year for The Telegraph, noted that "it deserves its status as a Penguin Classic, not only because it is a great historic document, but also because it’s a cracking good read: Karski’s adventures are worthy of the wildest spy thriller". A reviewer for the Culture.pl portal also commented on Karski's writing style, saying that the work "reads like the screenplay to a war movie". Reviewing this edition for the Michigan War Studies Review in 2013, Donald Lateiner described it as "exciting but self-effacing" piece that still "has not lost its freshness". == Analysis ==

In 1944, Karski's book sought to impact the discourse of Poland in Anglo-American politics in 1944. Karski, who met a number of British and American journalists in 1943, came to the conclusion that the Western Allied public saw Poles primarily as passive victims. Hence, one of his primary purposes was to educate the readers about the scope of the Polish resistance (one of the largest in World War II). The very name of the book, Story of a Secret State, refers to the Polish Secret State, a political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London, encompassed not only military resistance but also underground civilian structures, such as education, culture and social services. == See also ==