1. The People's House - David Pepper
2. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking - Anya Von Bremzen
3-4. Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe - Inara Verzemnieks
5. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning - Timothy Snyder
6. Swing Time - Zadie Smith
7. The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery - Capt. Witold Pilecki [Auschwitz Prisoner #4859], translated to English by Jarek Garlinski.
Whoa. The many WWII and Holocaust-related books I've read over the years STILL did not prepare me for this one.
Capt. Witold Pilecki was a Polish soldier during the first World War and was a noted member of the Polish Underground when the Second World War tore apart his country. He volunteered to go to Auschwitz - an almost certainly suicidal mission. He got himself a fake identity and deliberately walked into a German SS street round-up in Warsaw in Sept. 1940.
Pilecki chronicled the happenings at the camp for the next three years, sending missives back to the Polish Home Office whenever he was able, and upon his escape in April 1943 penned a full report. While written primarily for military purposes, it is a shining example of heroism and love of country that transcends religion, race and time.
His story was virtually unknown because it was intentionally suppressed by the postwar communist regime in Poland - because Pilecki's story did not end with his 3-year mission to Auschwitz. He participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and was taken prisoner by the Germans. In late 1945 he volunteered for another undercover mission and returned to Poland where conditions were chaotic at war's end and the communists were asserting control. He was arrested as a Western spy by the Polish communist regime, tortured and executed in 1948 at the age of 47. His heroic exploits were expunged from Polish history until the country regained independence in the 1990s. He was fully exonerated posthumously and is now considered an heroic figure in Polish history.
I'd have never known about him if his story hadn't been referenced several times in Timothy Snyder's "Black Earth." Pilecki's report was translated into English in 2011, and this book is the result. If you have any interest at all in WWII/Holocaust/military history, do yourself a favor and read this. Remarkable stuff from a brave and selfless individual.