Poland Books

This review is hardly unbiased. The author, Morris Wysogrod, a commerical artist by trade, is my cousin and quite truly, a hero of mine. Whenever I visit my Cousin Morris' apartment, I am greeted as soon as I step off the elevator with genuine warmth and enthusiasm. His smile,unbreaking and his conversation,always scintillating, I am amazed at his sincerity and good nature despite what he has witnessed and experienced as a Holocaust survivor.

His warmth and love for his fellow man is evident throughout his memoir. Morris provides a vivid look at pre-war Poland and the lives that were stolen from our families. And, much as he greets his guests with genuine warmth and affection today, he treats each character in his book with similar respect and reverence.

His memory is outstanding as he remembers the many personalities and every day people of his Warsaw youth, and later in the death camps. His descriptions are detailed and he suceeds in bringing out the special qualities of each character. This is so important because more often than not, the people he describes with such affection will soon be dead at the hands of the Nazis. Much of Holocaust literature refers to the millions who were massacred. Morris didn't know the millions but he pays beautiful homage to the hundreds who crossed his path.

From homage to carnage, Morris's story takes us into the Nazi occupation and his incarceration in several death camps. Similar to his skills in painting a picture of his pre-war youth, he is equally and shockingly vivid in his memories of the camps. The brutality, anguish, and sheer inhumanity he witnessed is brought to life as only a man of his artistic talents can do.

And in the midst of the brutality, there is the friendships, the shared moments, and the appreciation for his fellow prisoners that is necessary for the reader to grasp onto so that he or she may continue with the chilling chronicle of Morris' survival.

A Brush With Death has warmth, beauty and brutality. It is one of the many stories of the Holocaust experience, and one which I am confident will provide a unique perspective to the most horrific period in recorded history.

As a fellow survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Budzyn concentration camp, I can attest the accuracy of the author's harrowing descriptions of his experiences.

I am amazed at the author's ability to recall so many details. He writes from the heart, without artifice. His spare drawings provide haunting illustrations of what words can't always describe on their own.

Read this book. You will be moved.

After so many books and movies about Poland in World War II, you may think that there is no more left to learn. By Devil's Luck will prove you wrong. This personalized tale of the Polish resistance, expecially of their sabotage units, will grab your attention from page one and you will not be able to put the book down until the last page. You get to know the characters, real people, and feel Mr. Likiernik's sadness when one by one they are killed. And you feel fury towards the Gestapo and SS for their brutality and inhumanity. The vivid description of the Warsaw Uprising puts you there, dodging bullets, suffering wounds, racing to keep from being captured and killed. This book is a must read for young and old alike.

Stanislaw Likiernik recounts his experiences in prewar Poland, German-occupied Poland, the AK, the Warsaw Uprising, and postwar Paris.

In recent years, some (e. g. Jan T. Gross) have advanced the disingenuous argument that Poles were willing to incur the German-imposed death penalty for harboring radios and guns, but much less so for harboring Jews. To begin with, everyone knows that getting away with hiding a forbidden object is much more likely than getting away with hiding a human being. As it turns out, Poles weren't particularly risk-taking when it came to radios either: "Radios in private hands were a rarity, their possession punishable by death." (p. 72). As for black marketeering, Poles really had no choice, and they knew furthermore that the death penalty upon being caught wasn't consistently enforced: "To survive, the inhabitants of Warsaw had to use the black market...In my place, a real gendarme would, at his most benevolent, confiscate the goods, and at worst let go with his sub-machine gun. Searches of trains often ended in the shooting of women and men traveling with contraband food supplies." (p. 83)

Likiernik describes his experiences in KEDYW (KIEROWNICTWO DYWERSJI, or Directorate of Sabotage) (pp. 67-70), which included the blowing up of a German train that was taking ammunition to the Russian Front. He played a direct role in the assassinations of German officials, including Commander Schmalz (pp. 96-97) and the Gestapo agents Jung and Hoffman (p. 103). KEDYW was somewhat better armed than other AK units (p. 107), but some 70% of KEDYW members later perished during the Warsaw Uprising (p. 147).

Just before the Uprising, Likiernik had what turned out to be a prophetic experience: "My friend Roman Mularczyk (later known as Roman Bratny, the celebrated writer) came to see me several days before the Rising. `Mark my words,' he said. `The Russians will provoke an insurrection in Warsaw and when we start fighting, they'll stop their advance and let the Germans finish us off.'" (p. 111). And so it happened: A vast sea of death and destruction.

During the Uprising, the most unpleasant German weapon was the Nebelwerfer ("bellowing cow" or "wardrobe"; p. 123). Likiernik was wounded a number of times, and had to be moved from a field hospital because the Germans would murder the wounded (pp. 117-118).

After the war, Likiernik observed the Communist takeover of Poland from a Polish mission in Paris. He also noted: "The demeanor of the new arrivals from Poland, especially of the officers, was getting increasingly strange. Some communists of Jewish origin could hardly even speak Polish." (p. 178).

beautiful story and so poignantly written. the author lived at a very crucial time in modern history, and i feel priveleged to have gained a window into her world. the heroine of the book, sara schenirer, and the author are two outstanding examples of women who have chosen to raise themselves higher than angels. their stories are an inspiration to all to try and do the same.

This is a wonderful history of Sarah Schenirer, her students, and their vision of providing formal education to Jewish girls. A must read for anyone interested in women in Judaism.

Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto: An Epitaph For The Unremembered by Peter F. Dembowski (Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago) is an intense, personal, and moving story of evading the German troops and camps during World War II. Readers follow Dembowsi through the gripping and remarkable tale of two imprisonments of the Nazi troops, an induction into the Polish Home Army and all of the happenings that enabled his survival in Christians In The Warsaw Ghetto, highly recommended for its informative and gripping content to all non-specialist general readers, particularly students of World War II.

According to the German-developed Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Christians were considered Jews, and treated accordingly by the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Interestingly, Poland's Jewish leaders often considered assimilation into Polish society as much a repudiation of one's Jewishness as conversion to Christianity (p. 117, 137-138). Jewish Christians often experienced animosity from other Jews in the ghetto (p. 122), including unprovoked violence (p. 85).

Dembowski presents a variety of historical information. We learn that the prewar ONR had been outlawed by Polish authorities since its inception (p. 62). While the occupying Germans forced Jews to wear the star, they also forced the Polish slaves in Germany to wear the "P" (pp. 45-46). Marek Edelman recounted the fact that Warsaw's Jews initially disbelieved Polish reports of the mass gassings of Jews (pp. 53-55). Edelman's wife praised THE PIANIST for its qualities (p. 39).

Dembowski rebuts Mordecai Kaplan's charge that Polish priests wrote false certificates for Jews out of mercenary motives. In actuality, false baptismal certificates were a risky undertaking, incurring the German-imposed death penalty for both the priest and recipient if caught (p. 99).

There is irony in the betrayal of Anne Frank by a Dutchman. Two of her benefactors were not arrested at all, while one of the remaining two was released after arrest. Had Anne Frank's family and benefactors been Polish, they would all have all been summarily shot by the Germans (p. 83).

The Jewish-Christian bacteriologist Ludwik Hirszfeld put prewar Polish anti-Semitism into perspective: "My nation accused by the world of anti-Semitism is a good nation. [It gives assistance] despite the death sentence for help, and despite the inherited antipathy towards Jews. I believe that if Jehovah maintains the register of all the injuries suffered by Jews, he will erase the Przytyk pogrom, university disturbances, and separate seating for Jews [in the universities], because Polish antipathy lasted only as long as there was a vision of powerful Jews. It was replaced by pity when the pauper appeared. It was the case during the Jewish martyrdom." (p. 124).

Several accounts, such as the fictional little Polish girl in Steven Spielberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST and the various selectively-chosen anecdotes in Jan T. Gross' FEAR, would have us believe that Poles delighted in Jewish suffering. In contrast, Antoni Marianowicz (Kazimierz Jerzy Berman) wrote: "When we were returning to the car, wearing our armbands, children at Zytnia Street pointed their fingers at us and whispered: `Look, the Jews!' There was no animosity in their voices, only curiosity in seeing the officially branded people." (p. 114).

The reader learns that the eyewitness monographs of Hirszfeld (p. 33), Makower (pp. 102-103), and Marianowicz (p. 110) have never been translated into English. Why not? Is it because these Jewish Christians are not considered Jews, or is it because their works don't fit the ultra-Judeocentric and oft-Polonophobic motif of much contemporary Holocaust material?

Contemporary Painting in Poland is an absolute delight for all wishing to better understand the contemporary art (painting) scene in Poland. Mr. Noyce provides a brief, yet thorough history of Polish painting, accompanied by insightful profiles of 48 notable, contemporary Polish artists. Excellent examples of the artists' works fill the 236 large-formatted pages. As a Polish-American, I found the book truly inspiring and have reserved a special spot in my library for it.

I have both of Mr. Noyce's books covering Polish painting and graphic arts. They represent an excellent overview of current art in Poland. I lived in Poland for two years and purchased many pieces by artists represented in Noyce's books. This book covered quite a few artists I had not known about. From my experience, contemporary painting is not as developed or respected in Poland as the graphic arts and printmaking. This is a great reference guide that I am going to use the next time I am back in Poland.

It is wonderful to have these books accompanying my art collection.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in a well-written account of a young couple's experiences during WWII. I would love to read other books by this author - she is very talented. Thank you for providing me with a book that I really couldn't put down!! Good luck with future endeavors!

This is an utterly facinating story that is treated fairly and presented with immense talent by the author. As it is both a historical record and a love story, it will prove interesting to a variety of readers. Although many people toss the phrase around, this is truly a book that is hard to put down.

We got this a month before leaving. It is a typical Eyewitness product...beautifully illustrated, has a time line, walking tours and great maps of the city. It is logically put together. These guides are one of our constant traveling companions., where ever and when ever we travel.

Krakow is a very beatiful, historic City and this guide greatly enhanced our enjoyment of it. EXCELLENT ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT.

Eyewitess Travel Guides are very good because they cover so many areas (history, architecture, planning, maps where to stay & eat, etc.) with excellent pictures and other graphics. The organization of the Eyewitness guides gives a quick overview of the city or country and helps to view a city or country by making it very easy to identify sites and buildings. The Eyewitness Guides facilitate touring by superb organization of maps, drawings, pictures and descriptions so that sigificant points of interest and sites are easily idenfied. They give alot of info, but are not too long. And I keep them as good references in contrast to many touring guides that I immediately discard after I have seen the area they cover. In other words, the content does not justify carrying the additional weight.
The Krakow guide is one of the best in the series. My biggest negative of the book is that it spells Krakow with the letter "c," not "k."

Since Amazon didn't post an editorial review, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "Tosh told Trina stories of Wanda, a Polish warrior queen who, when vanquished by a German prince, chose death under the waves of the Warta River rather than marry him ... of knights in gold armor and their white horses who sleep inside a hollow Tatra mountain and wait ... for Poland to need them ... "Why don't they wake up now and chase the Germans out?" asked Trina. "Because," answered Tosh, "the story is only a myth. The real sleeping knights are all of u -- all the Polish people, and when the time comes we will fight." Trina shivered as she remembered Tosh's words. The time to fight for Poland's freedom had come. Trina organized a small group of resistance fighters and they called themselves the Gray Knights -- none of whom was older than 14. The small band of children was part of an enormous group -- the Polish Resistance -- and this is the story of their part in the Polish Rising, August 1, 1944." Wow! What a story!

the book is a great book about courage and the strength of the young characters. i couldn't put this book down because it was so great. it may be a bit violent but it is a true story so it just captures the heart of any aged readers.

DEAR ESTHER should be required reading in every public school in America, and a staple in every college course in political science and history. Author Richard Rashke has fashioned young Esther Raab's escape from eastern Poland's Sobibor death camp into the quintessential survival tale of World War II, e.g., she stepped on dead bodies to avoid the land mines, sustaining a Nazi bullet wound to her head. In this evocative narrative, Rashke has created an artistic coup as well as a powerful epiphany for freedom seekers today in this mesmerizing account of the human condition under siege. Letters from children deeply touched by Esther's story reveal inspiring love, empathy, and cogent responses to the cruelties she endured and overcame. Splendid five-star achievment by Rashke!

DEAR ESTHER should be required reading in every public school in America, and a staple in every college course in political science and history. Author Richard Rashke has fashioned young Esther Raab's escape from eastern Poland's Sobibor death camp into the quintessential survival tale of World War II. In this evocative narrative, Rashke has created an artistic coup as well as a powerful epiphany for freedom seekers today in this mesmerizing account of the human condition under siege. Letters from children deeply touched by Esther's story reveal inspiring love, empathy, and cogent responses to the cruelties she endured and overcame. Splendid five-star achievment by Rashke!

This book gives you a chill up your spine. It's pictures and accounts are amazing and specific. I would reccomend it to any one intersted in the Holocaust period.

This is indeed a very descriptive book of many pointless sufferings: starvation,humiliation, and torture{mental and physical}. It left a sick feeling in my stomach that such could ever happen just because Hitler wanted the perfect race. Who was he to say? These people were treated like animals. How lucky I felt to be alive and living in a democracy! The book has many sketches to give you a better picture of the horror Joseph Bau and his family had to go through. Even the cover sends chills down your spine. Once you pick it up it will be hard to put down.