22nd January, 19:00-20:30 (followed by reception), The British Library
An in-person only event at the British Library jointly organised by the British Library and the Polish Cultural Institute in London to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2024.
Holocaust Memorial Day is a designated national day to remember the millions of people killed under Nazi persecution and genocides in other parts of the world which is marked on the 27th of January.
In the lead-up to the day you are invited to an evening with author Jack Fairweather as he talks about his bestselling book, The Volunteer. The True History of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz with Bartosz Wisniewski, Director of the Polish Cultural Institute.
The book tells the astonishing story of Witold Pilecki, a member of the Warsaw resistance who agreed to undertake a mission into Auschwitz to report back on the horrors taking place inside – Pilecki tried to incite rebellion in the camps when he discovered the Nazi’s terrifying plans and at great personal risk to his own life, forged an underground army that smuggled evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Auschwitz.
His reports from the camp were to shape the Allies response to the Holocaust – yet his story was all but forgotten for decades.
Jack’s book is the first major account to draw on unpublished family papers, newly released archival documents and exclusive interviews with surviving resistance fighters to show how Witold brought the fight to the Nazis at the heart of their evil designs.
Jack Fairweather is a British writer and former war reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the author of A War of Choice and The Good War. The Volunteer is a Costa Prize-wining book which has been translated into 25 languages. Jack has served as the Daily Telegraph’s Baghdad bureau chief, and as a video journalist for the Washington Post in Afghanistan. His war coverage has won a British Press Award and an Overseas Press Club award citation. He divides his time between the UK and Vermont. More about Jack Fairweather: Jack Fairweather
Bartosz Wisniewski the Deputy Head of Mission of the Republic of Poland, alongside being the Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London. He has held a variety of senior positions in Polish public administration as well as Head of Research at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, a leading Polish think tank. Mr. Wisniewski completed several visiting fellowships in leading DC-based analytical institutions, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In 2019, he participated in the Marshall Memorial Fellowship, curated by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which brings together mid-career professionals from both sides of the Atlantic. A native of Warsaw, he graduated with honours from the University of Warsaw and the Warsaw School of Economics. He also studied in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
(An audience Q&A will follow after the conversation with Jack)
Full Price Tickets £10 (Member & Concession Tickets Available)
There are a limited number of tickets avilable, so please book early to register your interest and avoid disappointment.
Open House – Polish Underground Movement Study
Collecting Cultures: Central and Eastern Europe –
