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!”