WHEN Hitler’s forces marched into Warsaw in September 1939, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski’s parents told him not to panic. They had experienced German occupation during the last war. There would be inconvenience, disorder and even looting. He should be careful. But it would not be too bad—the Germans were, after all, west Europeans—and by next year, the British and French would arrive.
The Bartoszewskis could hardly have given their teenage son worse advice. The Western allies never came; instead the Soviets joined in the Nazi attack. Hitler not only wiped Poland off the map, but aimed to obliterate its language, culture and people. Wladyslaw, caught in a random round-up, was sent to Auschwitz.
He would have died there, but exceptionally his employer, the Polish Red Cross, managed to get him out by 1941. Freed, he wrote down the first account of the place. When a little girl on the train home offered him some bread and cheese, it was the first touch of humanity since his arrest.
He showed that kindness to Poland’s Jews. Through Zegota, a part of the Polish underground state set up for the purpose, he helped provide them with food,...
from The Economist: Obituary http://ift.tt/1RgDjSF
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