The Volunteer: The True Story of a Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz

As part of this year's Chelsea History Festival, Jack Fairweather tells the true story of an unsung hero – a Polish resistance fighter, who infiltrated Auschwitz and drew the Allies' attention to its atrocities..

In the summer of 1940, underground operative Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands of people interred at a new concentration camp on the border of the Reich – Auschwitz.

After discovering the Nazi's terrifying plans, Witold's underground army smuggled evidence of the atrocities out of Auschwitz. Although his reports were to shape the Allies response to the Holocaust, his story was all but forgotten.

Fairweather's The Volunteer is an 'extraordinary story' (The Times), drawing on unpublished family papers, newly-released documents and exclusive interviews with survivors. Join him as he shares this enthralling tale of resistance and heroism and one man's attempt to change the course of history.

This event is followed by a book signing with the author.

This event is sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institute.