The Auschwitz Volunteer
News, Reviews & Events — 2012
This page contains News, Reviews & Events from 2012 dealing with The Auschwitz Volunteer, either in whole or in part. Complete listings can be found in the News, Reviews & Events Archive under Media Room in the main menu. Other years for this title can be found under the News, Reviews & Events tab in the menu at the left of this page.
December 20, 2012 – The New Republic reviews The Auschwitz Volunteer – “Extraordinary memoir…extraordinarily powerful prose,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum in her review of The Auschwitz Volunteer. “Pilecki’s depiction of life in Auschwitz and his description of opposition in Auschwitz deserves to be read alongside the accounts of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel.” Also appears in the December 31, 2012 print issue of The New Republic, under the headline “Evil After Evil.” Read the review – online link OR pdf of online review OR pdf of print review…
December 10, 2012 – Wildmoo Books reviews The Auschwitz Volunteer – “The Auschwitz Volunteer is the best book I read in 2012,” say blogger Chris Wolak on her Wildmoo Books blog. “If you’re a reader of history, WWII, Poland, the Holocaust, or spy novels go & buy this book or buy it for someone you know who is into these subjects. You won’t regret it. Pilecki’s story is astonishing.” Read the review — online OR pdf…
December 5, 2012 – The Jewish Journal – “I can’t think of a better gift to give yourself for Chanukah” says Rob Eshman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles, the largest Jewish weekly outside New York City. “Pilecki was a Polish army captain who volunteered at age 39 for one of the singular missions of World War II: to get into Auschwitz…Perhaps because he wrote in factual, unemotional language, perhaps because he wasn’t a Jew, his observations continue to carry an irrefutable weight.” Read the review — online OR pdf…
November 21, 2012 – Jewish News reviews The Auschwitz Volunteer – “Truly unique, at once a transcendent example of heroism and a historical document of singular importance…certain to become a standard reference work in every major Holocaust library collection.” Read the review — online link OR pdf…
November 15–18, 2012 – Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, New Orleans – Aquila Polonica exhibited at the 2012 ASEEES annual convention, marking our third year at ASEEES. All of our titles released through that time were on display and available for sale, including The Auschwitz Volunteer. More…
November 16–18, 2012 – Seattle, WA – Polish Perspectives at National Council for Social Studies – The Auschwitz Volunteer was among the Aquila Polonica titles exhibited in the Polish Perspectives booth at the 2012 Annual Conference of the National Council for Social Studies, held November 16-18, 2012 in Seattle, WA.
October 2012 – The Atlantic – “A fascinating first-hand account of virtually all aspects of life inside the camp,” says The Atlantic about The Auschwitz Volunteer, in an extensive article about Captain Witold Pilecki. Read the article — online link OR pdf…
September 30, 2012 – “What’s Up” news show, Polskie Radio – “What’s Up” host Slawek Szefs interviews book reviewer Michal Kubicki about The Auschwitz Volunteer, at thenews.pl. Listen to the interview (English-language, interview audio is approx. 13 minutes)
September 2012 – “In every generation heroes and heroines walk among us…Among them walked a man named Captain Witold Pilecki” – says the Jewish Book Council review of The Auschwitz Volunteer, written by Marcia Weiss Posner. Read the review — online link OR pdf…
Summer/Fall 2012 – The Intelligencer – “The Auschwitz Volunteer is the most extraordinary intelligence report you will ever read,” says The Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies in its review of The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery.
August 30, 2012 – “Poles search for the bones of the only volunteer Auschwitz inmate,” reported by Associated Press in The Times of Israel and elsewhere throughout the world– “It could hardly have been a riskier mission: infiltrate Auschwitz to chronicle Nazi atrocities. Witold Pilecki survived nearly three years as an inmate in the death camp, managing to smuggle out word of executions before making a daring escape. But the Polish resistance hero was crushed by the post-war communist regime — tried on trumped-up charges and executed. “Six decades on, Poland hopes Pilecki’s remains will be identified among the entangled skeletons and shattered skulls of resistance fighters being excavated from a mass grave on the edge of Warsaw’s Powazki Military Cemetery.” Read more…
July 19, 2012 – Shelf Awareness “Book Trailer of the Day” – Shelf Awareness, one of the leading daily e-newsletters for book lovers, named our video trailer for The Auschwitz Volunteer (watch on YouTube) as its “Book Trailer of the Day.”
July 1, 2012 – The New York Times “EDITORS’ CHOICE” – In its Sunday Book Review on July 1, 2012, the New York Times further honored The Auschwitz Volunteer by naming it an “EDITORS’ CHOICE.” We’re thrilled that Witold Pilecki is finally getting the recognition he deserves!The NYT Editors’ Choice page online OR pdf.
June 29, 2012 – Newstalk 106-108 FM, Ireland – Popular Irish radio host Sean Moncrieff talks with translator Jarek Garlinski about Witold Pilecki and his Auschwitz mission (approx. 10 minutes):
June 24, 2012 – The New York Times Sunday Book Review – In an extensive, erudite book review entitled “Were We All People?”, Yale Professor Timothy Snyder (Bloodlands) calls The Auschwitz Volunteer “a historical document of the greatest importance” and says Pilecki’s volunteering for Auschwitz was “perhaps one of the most courageous things anyone has ever done.” Read the review—online link, print edition pdf OR online edition pdf (highlighting added).
June 22, 2012 – Maclean’s Book Review – In his short but powerful book review, Brian Bethune of Maclean’s, Canada’s largest weekly news magazine, calls The Auschwitz Volunteer an “extraordinary memoir” and says it’s “made all the more affecting by its stark, just-the-facts tone.” Read the review—online link OR online edition pdf.
June 21–26, 2012 – American Library Association – The Auschwitz Volunteer was featured at two booths at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California—at the Independent Book Publishers Association booth, and at the booth of Rowman& Littlefield, sister company of Aquila Polonica’s distributor National Book Network. Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian attended one of the days, and had a chance to catch up with friends from around the country who were in attendance (at the right, Terry and IBPA’s Patti Grasso).
June 17–19, 2012 – Association of Jewish Libraries – Aquila Polonica exhibited at the well-attended 2012 Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries, held in Pasadena, California, where The Auschwitz Volunteer was one of our featured titles.
June 6, 2012 – BEA Show Daily “Hooked by Heroism” – Publishers Weekly’s BEA Show Daily ran a feature article on Aquila Polonica and The Auschwitz Volunteer entitled “Hooked by Heroism.” Read the article—online link OR online edition pdf.
June 5–7, 2012 – Book Expo America, New York City – The Auschwitz Volunteer was on display in both hardcover and trade paperback at the booth of Aquila Polonica’s distributor, National Book Network.
February 20, 2012 – Publishers Weekly reviews The Auschwitz Volunteer – “Remarkable revelations” says PW about The Auschwitz Volunteer. Read the PW review—online link OR online edition pdf.
January 11, 2012 – The Auschwitz Volunteer Picked as Featured Selection of History Book Club – Aquila Polonica’s April release, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery, an eyewitness report of one of the most audacious and dramatic undercover missions by an Ally in World War II, has been chosen to be a Featured Selection of the History Book Club® in May. The title has also been named a Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club® and the Military Book Club®. It has an Introduction by renowned historian and author Norman Davies, and a Foreword by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. Read the press release…
