Between the Covers

Hardcover. First edition. Text in Polish. Small quarto. pp. [1-4] 5-275 [276 (blank)]. Illustrated with 18 photographic halftone plates, one folded plate, and one large folded color plate: “Map of Concentration Camps in Soviet Russia,” tipped onto the back of the final page. Bound in original quarter cloth and marbled paper over boards. There are two small ink ownership stamps (both with a small inventory number written in ink) on three leaves: the recto and verso of the title page; side-by-side on the bottom right corner of one halftone plate; and side-by-side on the final text page. Old light stain on the spine back and very gentle bow on the top edge of the boards, the text block is neatly detached at the hinges, else near fine: the text pages and folded plates are clean and tight.

The rare Polish first edition, sarcastically titled “Soviet Justice,” that gives one of the first detailed accounts of Soviet Gulag camps and the associated politically corrupt justice system. It features an important folded map that shows the locations of the prison camps, together with extensive explanatory details about the camps in English.

The book was published during the last months of World War II, or immediately after the war ended, by Polish II Corps soldiers under British command in Italy, probably in Rome. The authors, Stanislaw Staszewski and Kazimierz Zamorski, used pseudonyms to protect their families, who still lived in Poland, from Russian reprisals, and also to conceal British involvement in the book’s publication as Soviet forces at the time were still fighting on the side of the Allies. Stanislaw Staszewski was a well-known Polish architect and writer, who participated in the Warsaw Uprising and was later imprisoned at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. A scarce, well-preserved copy, with the important folding map in excellent condition.

Historical note: The Polish II Corps (Drugi Korpus Wojska Polskiego) was formed in 1943, from various units fighting alongside the Allies, including in British-held Iraq. In addition to the Polish soldiers, the Corps also included Jewish, Belorussian, and Ukrainian soldiers. Many Polish soldiers were imprisoned in Gulags by the Soviets from 1939 on and were released in 1941, after the Polish-Russian Military Agreement on 14 August, which allowed for the creation of a Polish Army on Soviet soil. The Polish II Corps played a major role in the North African and the Italian Campaigns (1941-45) as part of the British Eighth Army. After the war the division was based at various locations in England, where they maintained a presence until 1962.

Item #430055