I Am First a Human Being: The Prison Letters of Krystyna Wituska

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island and Honorary Chief of the Mi'kmaq of Prince Edward
Island.

During World War II, 20-year-old Krystyna Wituska joined the Polish
Underground movement. She was subsequently caught by the German Gestapo
and executed. This book comprises 96 letters that she wrote while in
prison. Combining humor, irony, tenderness, shrewd observation, and
inevitable poignancy, they constitute a remarkable tribute to the
indomitability of the human spirit. Bereft of “so much of world’s
beauty,” the poet in Wituska feels that the transient touch of
sunshine on her cheek “is better than a kiss.”

The book is admirably translated into English, and sensitively edited,
by Irene Tomaszewski (who herself was born in a Soviet concentration
camp).