The Volunteer - Jack Fairweather

This book was just awarded the Costa prize, and it's not hard to see why - Jack Fairweather's The Volunteer documents the harrowing and inspirational tale of Witold Pilecki, a Polish underground operative who successfully infiltrated Auschwitz concentration camp. His mission was to uncover the secrets of what was unfolding there, so he voluntarily entered the camp as a prisoner, during a time when even the Germans did not know that it would soon become a death camp for the extermination of over a million Jews, and the main site of the Nazi's Final Solution. Fairweather states in his author's note that the book is as historically accurate as he could possibly make it, with an extensive list of primary sources given, as well as many photographs and drawings throughout the text. 

The author is a former Washington Post war correspondent and became fascinated by Pilecki's largely untold story which came to light in the 1960s, but only after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Polish state archives became accessible to Pilecki's son, Andrzej. Witold was 38 years old in 1940 when the Polish underground heard reports of a concentration camp and decided to send in an operative who could leak information out of the camp and potentially stage an uprising. Witold remained a prisoner in Auschwitz for two years and nine months under an alias, during which time he managed to successfully send information out of the camp which detailed the scale of the murder that was going on, unbeknownst to nearby civilians. 

Despite its horrific nature, the book is incredibly gripping and enjoyable - if that can be said of a book of its nature. The addition of photographs, maps and drawings is a great touch which enables readers to really visualise the people Fairweather is documenting and the experiences seem all the more poignant with the addition of visual aids. This truly is an enlightening and inspirational story of a little-known war hero which also provides an eye-opening historical insight into the horrors of Auschwitz.