Between His People

In high school I read “Diary of the Warsaw Uprising” by M. Białoszewski. Then there’s Jan Ciechanowski’s “Warsaw Uprising.” I tried to understand something else by reading N. Davis’s “Rise 44.” In fact, it is possible to say almost nothing about it. “Almost nothing” is the title of the book, about Józef Czapski, written by Eric Karpeles. When I read “On inhuman land” many years ago, a book written by J. Czapski, I understood and felt differently what it meant to be among His own. Reading “Inhuman Earth”, I cried for a long time. I cried only once in my life reading the book (not counting Ugly Duckling and Robinson Cruzoe).

“On inhuman land” by J. Czapski, is the most important book about who are “You SWOI”. Poles. And one of my most of mine is Józef Czapski. I remember when Józef Czapski met George Orwell in Paris at the end of The Second War (or just after the End of the War) and presented Orwell with his assessment of the situation in Soviet Russia, Orwell changed one key phrase in “Animal Farm” under the influence of this conversation, which at the time had already finished writing, “All the animals fell to the ground including Napoleon” changed to: “All the animals fell to the ground” , except for Napoleon.” It’s called loving the truth.