The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz

 Jack Fairweather’s new book "The Volunteer" tells the little-known story of Witold Pilecki, who spent nearly three years in Auschwitz clandestinely working to undermine the Germans and inform the Allies of Nazi crimes. Pilecki’s exploits were suppressed for decades after the war by Poland’s Communist government, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the opening of the archives in Warsaw, the story of his heroic mission slowly emerged. Fairweather has drawn on Pilecki’s own accounts, including previously uncovered writings, hundreds of prisoners’ testimonies and exclusive interviews with those who knew him and fought beside him, to paint a compelling, nuanced portrait of a hero who risked everything to bring the horrors of Auschwitz to light. Fairweather was joined in conversation by the co-host of NPR’s "On Point" David Folkenflik.