School Library Journal - Audio
04/01/2022
Gr 7 Up—What's immediately striking here is the casting of a woman to narrate: the titular rebel is the Polish hero—a man—Witold Pilecki. So, too, is the author Fairweather, who adapted his 2019 award-winning The Volunteer. The reasons for choosing a female voice never seem obvious, but Betsy Meiman confidently reads on, her performance consistently crisp and thoughtful. In a narrative about Auschwitz, the graphic horrors haunt, but Meiman remains in careful control, never devolving toward frenzied overdramatization. Three months after the Germans opened the infamous Polish death camp, Pilecki entered its hell in September 1940: "his mission, for the Polish resistance [was] to infiltrate the camp, create an underground resistance, and gather evidence of Nazi crimes." Pilecki survived for almost three years inside, saving lives, enabling escapes. His deserved recognition happened only after his death. VERDICT She's an unconventional narrator choice, but Meiman doesn't disappoint.
From the Publisher
Praise for The Volunteer:
"This is a story that has long deserved a robust, faithful telling, and [Fairweather] has delivered it." — Wall Street Journal
"An extraordinary story." — The Times
* "A forceful narrative with unstoppable reading momentum, Fairweather has created an insightful biography of a covert war hero and an extraordinary contribution to the history of the Holocaust." — Booklist, starred review
"Witold Pilecki is one of the great — perhaps the greatest — unsung heroes of the second world war... Jack Fairweather's meticulous and insightful book is likely to be the definitive version of this extraordinary life." — Economist
Kirkus Reviews
2021-08-16
A young readers’ adaptation of The Volunteer (2019), about a Polish resistance fighter who infiltrated Auschwitz.
At 38, Witold Pilecki was a gentleman farmer, a husband and father, and a second lieutenant in the cavalry reserves. Shortly after the Nazis invaded Poland, he joined the underground resistance movement and accepted a dangerous mission: infiltrating Auschwitz to learn what was happening behind its walls, attempting to create a resistance cell within the camp, then staging an escape. Pilecki allowed himself to be captured and sent there as a political prisoner. For nearly three years, he experienced firsthand the horrifying violence inflicted at Auschwitz as well as the gnawing hunger and infectious disease that dominated life in the camp. He set about creating resistance cells among fellow prisoners he felt he could trust, sending oral messages via prisoners who were released, in hopes this intelligence would reach the Allies and inspire them to action. As Auschwitz transformed from a violent prison camp to a death camp targeting primarily Jews, Pilecki’s drive to spur an uprising grew more urgent. The narrative moves at a fast clip, never pausing or slowing down for readers to process the many horrors described. Nevertheless, it represents an important perspective that adds yet another layer to what we know about the tragic legacy of Auschwitz. Maps and photographs enhance the text.
A valuable account of an ordinary man who made extraordinary sacrifices. (character list, abbreviations, selected bibliography, endnotes, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)
