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The man who smuggled himself into Auschwitz
- colbyolson 17y agoNot exactly sure why this story is on HN, but it was interesting read nonetheless. A very courageous man he was to have done such a thing- twice.
- YuriNiyazov 17y agoI'd say that it qualifies under the "it teaches you somethinng about the world" clause.
- aw3c2 17y agoAnd hacking the real world. The mindset required is not that different.
- potatolicious 17y agoGah! Again with HN's obsession with labeling anything impressive and daring a "hack".
- nkassis 17y agoit's called hacker news for a reason. It's like saying "I digg it" on digg or you have been slashdotted. Trademarking to brain wash us all.
- colbyolson 17y agoI agree. The story here is impressive, courageous, daring, and brash, but calling it a "great hack" doesnt seem fitting.
- sown 17y agoThat's one hell of a hack.
- cema 17y agoIt is. I think people may have modded you down because they thought you were being ironic.
- ajuc 17y agoTruly brave man. Another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki - "Polish James Bond" - he voluntered to go to Auschwitz in 1940, made reports about what happened there, organized resistance in camp, stolen some German documents and escaped when nobody wanted to try and attack the camp (he was trying to persuade Aliants and Polish Home Army to do that, but they thought it wouldn't work).
- Estragon 17y ago"Thought it wouldn't work." Bah, they just didn't care. The Poles were just as virulently anti-Semitic as the Germans, and the Allies, if they'd given a damn, would have provided visas for Jewish refugees years before the war even started.
- zby 17y agoI think this was a bit more complicated: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski In the summer of 1942 Karski was chosen by Cyryl Ratajski, the Polish Government's Delegate at Home, to perform a secret mission to prime minister Władysław Sikorski in London. Karski was to contact Sikorski as well as various other Polish politicians and inform them about Nazi atrocities in occupied Poland. In order to gather evidence, Karski was twice smuggled by Jewish underground leaders into the Warsaw Ghetto for the purpose of showing him firsthand what was happening to the Polish Jews. Also, disguised as a Ukrainian camp guard, he visited what he thought was Bełżec death camp.[2] (It is now believed that he actually saw a nearby sorting camp of Izbica) In 1942 Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, as well as members of political parties such as the PPS, SN, SP, SL, Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was a major factor in informing the West. In July 1943, Karski again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, and Stephen Wise. Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile. It is possible, however, that Karski's descriptions influenced FDR to create the War Refugee Board several months later in January 1944. ============= You can say allies did not care, Poles were antisemitic, but there are Jews on the list of people he contacted.
- nkassis 17y agoWow, incredible story. That guy must have some incredible nerves of Tungsten.
- Zarathu 17y agoHow is this relevant? I've been mentally bombarded enough with WW2.
- norswap 17y agoThere is something that puzzles me in all this : why didn't he spoke of it earlier ? Especially since it's advertised that he did it "so he could tell others the truth". Perhaps he spoke about it and it didn't catch media's attention. Anyway, if it's true then it sure is very brave, and crazy. I mean infiltrating an extermination camp ? You gotta be insane (or suicidary) to try something like this.
- joeycfan 17y agoTwo things. First, this is irrelevant here. The is about geekdom, remember? And since Holocaust Remembrance Day in the media is yesterday, today and tomorrow, we don't need any more reminding. Second, the reason they didn't bomb the camps is that they knew full well that right in the middle of a life-and-death struggle, the Nazis were actually diverting who-know-how-many SS soldiers and their immense support systems to running these camps. The war, which tettered on a tipping point several times. might have been way different if those soldiers has been allowed to actually soldier. The camps held them down as effectively as several armored divisions.
- ajuc 17y agoCamps would be even better at holding soldiers if a few planes bombed them, and some millions of Jews/Poles/Russians/Gypsies/Ukrainians/Muslims/Homosexualists, and other "subhumans" would be free. Nazists would have to catch them again, make these camps defended better, fight with the people that were escaping, etc. The more chaos on enemy teritory, the better for me, right? They (England etc) just didn't believe raports about that camps, and anyway didn't cared that much about some Jews and Eastern Europeans. They showed the same in Jalta.