Fighting Auschwitz -- Finalist in Prestigious Benjamin Franklin Awards

LOS ANGELES - March 18, 2019 - PRLog -- Fighting Auschwitz: The Resistance Movement in the Concentration Camp by Jozef Garlinski (Aquila Polonica Publishing, September 2018) has just been named as a finalist for the 2019 Benjamin Franklin Award in the category of History.

Winners will be announced in a ceremony held in Chicago the evening of April 5, 2019. Now in its 31st year, the Benjamin Franklin Awards, sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is the premier awards competition in independent publishing. There were more than 1,500 entries this year. "The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards demand both editorial and design excellence and entrants are judged independently on both," said IBPA CEO Angela Bole.

Fighting Auschwitz is the incredible story of the prisoner underground at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

"The definitive study of the topic," says Professor Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, and Chief Historian, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, who wrote the Introduction. The book also has a Foreword by Professor M. R. D. Foot, the outstanding British authority on resistance to the Nazi German occupation of Europe during World War II.

In this meticulously researched and highly readable work, Garlinski traces the evolution and operations of the principal prisoner resistance organizations inside the camp. He delves into the origins of and relationships among the various political and multinational factions within the prisoner population, including both male and female, and with the underground outside the camp. He describes their efforts against the brutal Nazi German SS men and informers.

In parallel, he documents the growth and evolution of Auschwitz itself from a German concentration camp for Polish political prisoners to an industrialized death factory for the Jews of Europe. The book is enhanced by more than 200 photos and maps, five Appendices, an extensive Bibliography and detailed Indexes.

Dr. Adam Cyra, Senior Curator, Dept. of Historical Research, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, calls Fighting Auschwitz "The best-documented and also the most extensive description of the heroic effort...at Auschwitz."

"We're thrilled to learn that Fighting Auschwitz is a finalist in the 2019 Ben Franklin Awards," said Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian. "This is an extremely important book which should be part of all Holocaust and WWII collections."

For more info, including the video book trailer:
http://www.polandww2.com/fighting-auschwitz/fighting-ausc...

About Jozef Garlinski: Garlinski (1913–2005) was a preeminent author, historian and chronicler of WWII, and particularly of Poland's less well-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.

During the war, Garlinski was a member of the Polish underground army, where he held several positions, including intelligence liaison with underground members imprisoned at Pawiak prison in Warsaw. In 1943, he was arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, and eventually transported to concentration camps at Neuengamme and Wittenberge. Following the war, Garlinski settled in England. He obtained his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, was prominent in the Polish emigre community in the UK, and an active author and speaker throughout the remainder of his life.

Aquila Polonica Publishing, http://www.polandww2.com, is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing the Polish WWII experience in English. The company is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Aquila Polonica's titles are distributed to the trade in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand by National Book Network, www.nbnbooks.com, and are available from fine bookstores, online retailers, and all major wholesalers.