Inhuman land - Jzef Czapski

A classic work of reportage about the Katyn Massacre during World War II by a soldier who narrowly escaped the atrocity himself.


In 1941, when Germany turned against the USSR, tens of thousands of
Poles-men, women, and children who were starving, sickly, and
impoverished-were released from Soviet prison camps and allowed to join
the Polish Army being formed in the south of Russia. One of the
survivors who made the difficult winter journey was the painter and
reserve officer Jzef Czapski.

General Anders, the army's
commander in chief, assigned Czapski the task of receiving the Poles
arriving for military training; gathering accounts of what their fates
had been; organizing education, culture, and news for the soldiers; and,
most important, investigating the disappearance of thousands of missing
Polish officers.
Blocked at every level by the Soviet authorities,
Czapski was unaware that in April 1940 many officers had been shot dead
in Katyn forest, a crime for which Soviet Russia never accepted
responsibility.
Czapski's account of the years following his
release from the camp and the formation of the Polish Army, and its
arduous trek through Central Asia and the Middle East to fight on the
Italian front offers a stark depiction of Stalin's Russia at war and of
the suffering, stoicism, and bravery of his fellow Poles. A work of
clear observation and deep compassion, Inhuman Land is one of the twentieth century's indispensable acts of literary witness.