Jack Fairweather book launch “one of the best”

Jack Fairweather speaking to the crowd that gathered on June 20. Photo by Vince Crockenberg.

Jack Fairweather launched his new book, The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz, at a party on Thursday, June 20, hosted by Mika and Jack Frechette at their Stoneledge Farm in Ferrisburgh.

Despite wet weather, a large, appreciative crowd gathered in the hay barn to hear the true story of Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who intentionally let himself get captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz so he could report on the conditions inside the camp and organize a resistance movement among the prisoners.

Elizabeth Bluemle, owner of The Flying Pig, provided books for sale and signing by the author. In a post on Front Porch Forum, Elizabeth described the event as “one of the best—maybe the best—adult talks I’ve heard in my 22 years of bookselling, and that’s saying something!”