JOZEF GARLINSKI (1913–2005) was a preeminent author, historian and chronicler of World War II, and particularly of Poland’s little-known role as one of the Western Allies. On many topics his work was seminal, laying the foundation for later research and histories. Fighting Auschwitz is one such book, being the first to disclose to the public the existence, structure, principal participants and other details of resistance movements among the prisoners at Auschwitz.

Born in Kiev, at that time part of the Russian Empire under the last Tsar, Garlinski was educated in Poland after the country regained its independence in 1918. He completed his military service at the cavalry school in Grudziadz, and had begun to study law at the University of Warsaw when World War II broke out.

He fought and was wounded in the September 1939 campaign. When Poland was soon overrun by both the Germans and the Soviets, Garlinski joined the Polish Underground where he held several positions, including intelligence liaison with Underground members held in Pawiak prison. In 1943, he was arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, where he was incarcerated in the Penal Company in Birkenau, and eventually transported to concentration camps at Neuengamme and Wittenberge.

Following the war, Garlinski settled in England with his Anglo-Irish wife Eileen, whom he had married in Warsaw during the first week of the war (and who herself was a member of the Polish Underground throughout the war). Retiring from a successful business career, Garlinski obtained his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. His dissertation topic, the resistance movements at Auschwitz, became the book Fighting Auschwitz. He was prominent in the Polish emigre community in the UK, and continued as an active author and speaker throughout the remainder of his life.

Garlinski brought to his work a keen intellect, careful attention to detail in research and writing, doggedness in pursuing sources across national boundaries and even through the Iron Curtain, and multilingual ability that enabled him to read source materials in the original Polish, German, Russian and English. But he also brought something that very few, if any, historians can claim: he had lived through the times and events, and in many cases had firsthand experience and/or personally knew people involved in the very topics he wrote about.

Garlinski’s work has both the objectivity of a true historian, and the irreplaceable depth of understanding imparted by firsthand experience—a combination rare in most historians today.