‎"[REPUBLIC OF POLAND. MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]. [Jan Karski].‎
‎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. - [INFORMING THE WEST OF THE HOLOCAUST]‎

‎London, New York, Melbourne (printed in Great Britain), Published on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (1943). 8vo. Stapled as issued. Title-page printed in red. Stapels with rust, slightly affecting surrounding paper. A very fine, near mint, copy. 16 pp.‎

Reference : 60436

‎The scarce first printing of this hugely important publication, which constitutes one of the very first official reports on Holocaust and one of the most accurate accounts that had been presented to the West, changing their knowledge of what was actually going on. This seminal pamphlet consists of 1) Raczynski's account of the ongoing Holocaust, based among other reports, on the eye-witness-report by Jan Karski, a Polish Government emissary in occupied Poland, who bribed his way into a German concentration camp and witnessed the mass extermination of Jews, 2) the seminal ""Joint Declaration"" by members of the United Nations, in which ""The above-mentioned Govenments and the French National Committee condemn in the strongest possible terms this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all free-loving peoples to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They reaffirm their solems resolution to ensure that those responsible for these crimes shall not escape retribution, and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end."" (p. 12), 3) an extract of Deputy Prime Minister Mikolajczy's statement on behalf of the Polish Government, and 4) the text of Raczynski's broadcast of December 1942, in which pleaded for action, wishing to make the public and the Allied nations ""understand how real is the tragedy which is taking place not so very far from the shores of this island, on the continet of Europe - on the soil of Poland. For more than three years the Germans have consistently done everything they could to hide from the eyes of the world the martyrdom of the Polish nation, the like of which has never been known in the history of humanity. But ""when we would keep silence the very stones will cry out""."" (p. 15).While the details were neither complete nor wholly accurate, the Allies were aware of most of what the Germans had done to the Jews at a relatively early date. The mass murder of the Jews was of such dimensions, however, that, at first, they could not believe the reports that reached them. This quickly changed, though.In February of 1942 Jacob Grojanowski, an escaped prisoner of the Chelmno extermination camp, provided the Oneg Shabbat group with detailed information about what went on at the Chelmno camp. His report became known as the Grojanowski Report. It was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto via the Polish underground and reached London in June of 1942. It is not known exactly what happened to the report at that point, but by February of 1942, the United States Office of War Information had decided not to release information about the extermination of Jews (thinking that there was a risk of the public viewing the war as only being a Jewish problem). Thus, the Grojanowski Report was not released. By at least October of 1942 British radio had broadcast news of the gassing of Jews to the Netherlands, and in December 1942, the Western Allies released their Joint Declaration [which is printed in the present publication], describing and condemning in the strongest manner Hitler's violent attempts at exterminating the Jews of Europe. In 1942 Jan Karski (1914-2000), a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later professor at Georgetown University gave his first report to the Polish, British, and U.S. governments on what was going on in the German extermination camps in Poland.Karski reported to the Polish government in exile (i.e. Raczynski, who was the Ambassador and one of its most prominent leaders) and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland. Karski personally met with Franklin Roosevelt and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden to explain what went on in Poland, and Raczynski wrote up the report. Eventually, the American Government confirmed the reports to Jewish leaders in late November 1942, and shortly thereafter they were publicized [i.e. in the present publication]. Karski's report (through Raczynski) became one of the most important reports in the history of the Holocaust, being a major factor in informing the West. It sparked one of the first official publications from the Allies on the mass extermination of Jews in Poland and resulted in the official reports and condemnations from the Allied countries, i.e. the ""Joint Declaration"" [also published here].""The purpose of this publication is to make public the contents of the Note of December 10th, 1942, addresses by the Polish Government to the Governments of the United Nations concerning the mass extermination of Jews in the Polish territories occupied by Germany, and also other documents treating on the same subject. [...] In the hope that the civilized worlds will draw the appropriate conclusions, the Polish Government desire 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."" (From the Introductory Note, p. 3).""Most recent reports present a horrifying picture of the position to which the Jews in Poland have been reduced. The new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm the fact that the German autorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewsih population of Poland and of the many thousands of Jews whom the German authorities have deported to Poland from Western and Central European countries and from the German Reich itself.The Polish Government consider it their duty to bring to the knowledge of the governments of all civilized countries the following fully authentical information received from Poland during recent weeks, which indicates all too plainly the new methods of extermination adopted by the German authorities."" (p. 4). ‎