Poland Books

In his preface, Oscar E. Swan describes prewar Polish Jewry without the usual anti-Polish bias: "In the United States, with its tradition of rapid cultural assimilation, it may be difficult for the reader to imagine the tremendous gulf separating Polish and Jewish society in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s...there were the `Litvak" Jews, recently arrived from the east and speaking little or no Polish, and the Orthodox Jews, who had kept their own dress, language, customs, religion, and schools, resisting even a modicum of accommodation to the prevailing culture. Despite the inevitable sharp social tensions created by such a situation in this fiercely Catholic country during the economic hard times of the 1930s, and despite anti-Jewish sentiment, demonstrations, and clashes at the universities, in labor unions, and in other areas of public life--often enough fomented by the Nationalist element among Polish politicians--most urban Jews in Poland before the war lived in peace and relative prosperity." (pp. xxi-xxii).

In the Foreword, British historian Norman Davies adds: "In the era of Nationalism, there were Poles of the National Democratic persuasion who treated all Poland's ethnic minorities, including the Jews, with undisguised hostility, just as there were growing numbers of Jews of the Zionist persuasion who treated Poland as a country fit only to turn their backs on...it would also be inaccurate to suggest that Poland ever experienced the same level of pathological racism which has reigned at various times in neighboring Germany or Russia." (p. viii).

Shatyn describes the prewar Litvaks, some of whom had migrated westward to his native Krakow (Cracow), as follows: "...for the most part they were wholesalers, supplying goods either to local stores or to shops in the many small towns in the countryside. They engaged trained bookkeepers to keep their books for tax purposes, but in addition they all carried in their pockets little notebooks in which their actual accounts were kept, accounts different from those found in the bookkeepers' neat ledgers. The information in those little books was entered in a Hebrew script, legible only to them. They were excellent tradesmen, and, universal opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, they never cheated or swindled, though they drove a hard bargain." (pp. 101-102). The reader can understand how the Poles, even if not openly exploited, naturally resented being the generation-after-generation recipients of these hard bargains. BTW, isn't tax evasion a form of swindle, and isn't defrauding the Polish government also a defrauding of the Polish nation?

Bruno Shatyn (Szatyn, Schatten) was an atypical Polish Jew who, speaking fluent Polish and lacking Semitic features, survived the Nazi occupation in the open. His entire work is remarkably free of Polonophobia, and at no time does he become so Judeocentric as to ignore Polish martyrdom. For instance, he gives an eyewitness account of the slaughter of defenseless Polish civilian refugees by strafing German planes in 1939 (p. 116).

Shatyn points out that most Polish Jews scoffed at the notion that the conquering Germans would exterminate them (p. 133, 163). This further undermines the fear-of-Nazi-extermination justification for the extensive 1939 Jewish-Soviet collaboration. Furthermore, the Jewish pro-German mental inertia persisted well after the beginning of the mass extermination of Jews: "Who could believe that these proper, upright, hard-working people would commit mass murder? Even now, when we know that it is true, we still can't get used to the idea." (p. 194).

For security reasons, Shatyn tried to avoid those who knew him. Realizing that his Polish friends wouldn't betray him, he feared that they may divulge his Jewishness through some indiscretion or under Gestapo torture (p. 186). As for the szmalcowniki (blackmailers), he recognized the fact that these extortionists were marginal members of Polish society and that their acts were criminal rather than anti-Semitic in nature: "...the scum of society, the sort of person who, discovering that someone was a Jew, blackmailed the victim to his last penny and then, when he was penniless, denounced the unfortunate to the police, in full confidence that he would be eliminated and, with him, all evidence of the informer's crime." (p. 186). Shatyn also feared the Gestapo-serving Jewish informers, who made the rounds looking for fugitive Jews (pp. 186-187, 195).

On two different occasions, when the Germans were parading and/or humiliating the Jews before killing them, Shatyn wrote: "The Poles lined the sidewalks, looking on in absolute silence, as though frozen in place." (p. 42). Also: "Poles gathered on the sidewalks, incredulous, some crossing themselves at this monstrous sight." (p. 121). These accounts further contradict the selectively-chosen ones, by Jan Tomasz Gross, of Poles rejoicing at Jewish suffering. And, unlike Gross, Shatyn recognized the efficacy of the German-imposed death penalty in the deterrence of Polish aid to Jews (p. 48, 178, 186).

Shatyn provides intriguing details about his monitoring of German trains and skillfully deductions of their cargo and its implications (p. 223). Some rather imaginative Polonophobes have maliciously asserted that the Nazis built their extermination camps on Polish soil because the Poles would tolerate, if not welcome, them. That the German herrenvolk would consult the defeated Polish untermenschen is preposterous on its face! As a further irony, the Germans attempted to keep the camps secret from Poles. Shatyn reports that Polish conductors were removed from the death trains as they neared the camps, to be replaced by the SS and their Ukrainian and Baltic collaborators (p. 21). During their journeys, the train windows were barred, and no one was permitted near them (p. 224), though the weak moans of the victims could be heard in the fields.

Finally, Jews weren't the only scapegoats. The Germans also adopted a blame-the-victim mentality against Poles for Germany's misfortunes, notably after Stalingrad: "They claimed that everything was the fault of the verfluchte Polen--had it not been for their resistance to the German invasion in September 1939, this war which was now threatening to destroy the Reich would never have started." (p. 227).

For people interested in Central-Eastern European politics this book is a must-read. It provides a reader with a thorough and provocative insight into the murky mechanisms of the use of secret police to control the transition process in former communist states, and Poland in particular. As the authors show, the former communist secret services have not really lost their influence on the post-1989 politics. They were also instrumental in providing intelligence and security that enabled the party apparatchics to profit from the transformation and impose their own rules on the changing environment. It is so far the only book that documents and explains the processes through which the personnel and resources of the police-state apparatus have in good part been privatized through the creation of a powerful private security sector linked to the former communist elite.

From this vantage, this publication is a valuable and unique guide to understanding of Eastern European socio-political reality.

Gary T. Marx comments in his Foreword: “Los and Zybertowicz thoughtfully and creatively probe beneath the veneer of reality constructed by those who were (and some who remain) masters of deception. This study is a model of what scholarship on secrecy-enshrouded topics should be”.

I brought this book for my granddaughter (3 years old). She enjoyed the story and had many questions. She particularly liked the illustrations (which are also done by Mr. Ungar)and liked looking for Rachel in each picture.

The story is adapted from a Jewish fable and takes place in the town of Chelm. The people in the town are much enamoured of the moon and each artisan and trademan tries to find a way to coax the moon out of the sky (a musician will play beautiful music, a baker will make wonderful bread, etc.) but it is clever little Rachel who finally finds a way to capture the beauty of the moon.

My granddaughter thoroughly enjoyed the story and now asks me to read it to her on a regular basis.

I look forward to Mr. Ungar's next book.

This beautiful memoir opened a window into a world that I knew once existed, but that I had never actually seen before. We have all heard rebbe stories, have learned from the books left by these men, and have read of the lives of their followers. This, however, is a glimpse into the private lives of the aristocrats of European Hasidism. I do not use the word aristocracy lightly. The world of European Hasidism was highly stratified. The Rebbe's Daughter was top drawer. She lived in a large compound of servants, storerooms, and guest rooms for visitors to her father. There were coachmen, cooks, and governesses. There was no idle luxury. Every member of the rebbe's family lived a life of constant and devoted service. They served the Rebbe's followers, but also, and far more importantly, they served God.

Devotion to Torah pervaded every aspect and every moment of life. There is a kind of awe-filled beauty to a life in which every action, every thought is examined and consecrated to divine service. Devotion to Torah was so complete that even in the icy Polish winter the family shunned clothing made of wool. Better to shiver in silk and cotton than to risk a chance linen fiber that may render a woolen coat forbidden shatnes.

I cannot decide which aspect of the Rebbe's Daughter is more remarkable. The way it shows us a vivid picture of a vanished time and place, or the way it opens before us the way of thinking of a mind totally devoted to Torah.

CITATION FOR 2000 AAASS/ORBIS BOOKS PRIZE FOR POLISH STUDIES for an outstanding English-language book on any aspect of Polish affairs co-funded by Orbis Books in London

Different cultures at different moments in history seem to construct civil disobedience and popular protest differently. Where one goes from there depends on two things: one's critical methodology and one's creative hunches. Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993 (University of Michigan Press, 1999) by Grzegorz Ekiert and Jan Kubik has just the right mix of innovation and inspiration. It offers a new set of insights into the major points of seismic shift in post-communist Central Europe.

Rebellious Civil Society speaks powerfully about, and to, a particular time and place: Poland in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Placing Poland in a comparative framework, Ekiert and Kubik hack their way through the thickets of theory and data. Central to their discussion is the question: what is the role of popular protest in the consolidation of new democracy? It is a threat or a godsend?

Ekiert and Kubik write out of passion for freedom, democracy, and human agency. Their argument is characteristically detailed and lucid, and is supported by a reading of data that has powerful political implications. *Rebellious Civil Society" is a stimulating and well-argued book. It is so well-argued and so lucidly written that it is tempting to write a citation consisting entirely of quotations from the text. Such a combination of compelling scholarship and elegant writing seems almost illicit in a book that ostensibly falls under the rubric of political science.

(the prize was presented on November 11, 2000 at the AAASS 32nd National Convention in Denver, Colorado)

Brilliant economic insight and a unique focus on the human element of banking.

Talk about adventure! A British POW in German hands ends up in German-occupied Poland, escapes, becomes a member of the AK (p. 101), participates in the Underground-sponsored assassination of a Volksdeutsche infiltrator (pp. 154-156), acquires access to evidence (p. 287) that irrefutably blames the Soviets for the heinous crime of Katyn (p. 143, 251-252), marries a Pole (Marysia, who lived through and later described the Warsaw Uprising: pp. 271-275), and finally returns to Britain in early 1944, where he is silenced about Katyn (p. 235) and has to fend-off a smear campaign originating from British Communists.

Jeffery provides a vivid account of countless German cruelties against Poles and comments: "The food ration for Poles was less than that for British prisoners of war. The black market, of absolute necessity to sustain life, was periodically viciously repressed." (p. 67). "Since my arriving in the former Polish Corridor in 1940 as a German prisoner of war, my mind had harboured a growing conviction that the Nazis were eventually bent on meting out the same liquidation programme to the Polish people as were evident to the Jews wherever they found them." (p. 112)

Much of what happened during the German occupation will never be known, prompting Jeffery to conclude: "Since the war, opinions have been voiced that insufficient help to the Jews was forthcoming from the Poles during the Nazi occupation and especially during the ghetto revolt...The elements who have invented or distorted the history of those times and those two peoples to suit their personal objectives, contribute nothing of which the human race can be proud." (p. 284)

Jeffery puts the Warsaw Uprising in perspective: "Only the sparsest reference has ever been made in the Western news media, to the vast number of Polish civilians who perished in the Warsaw Uprising as a result of Soviet manipulation. Japanese casualties sustained during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were far less." (p. 246)

The author's countrymen come in for scathing criticism: "Britons in both high and low places were more pro-Soviet than seemed necessary to sustain what was a purely military alliance." (p. 247). "The Robin Hood aura bestowed by the media in some reports of Philby's despicable career is sickening as well as suspicious." (p. 253). "Between Russian communists on one hand and a proportion of the British establishment on the other, it is surprising that I have remained such a patriotic Briton considering the disgust I feel." (p. 293)

As for the Poles whom he came to know so well, Jeffery said: "People of more matchless moral and physical courage than the Poles have never existed..." (p. 43). "A major inspiration to produce this book has been to pay homage to the Polish people and especially to their magnificent unsung efforts during the years of Nazi occupation." (p. 259) "To contemplate the political destruction of people like the Poles, the most loyal Allies in the fight against the Nazis, was heartbreaking." (p. 299)

Reflections of South Carolina gives an excellent glimpse into all that is South Carolina. Photographs range from the beautiful beaches along the coast to college campuses and the biggest cities to the smallest counties throughout the state. The photographs by Robert Clark are exquisite and make you feel as if you are a part of them. You do not have to be a South Carolina native - I'm not!- to appeciate this book. Makes a wonderful gift to anyone who loves this state.

Liane Guddat was a pre-teen girl living happily with her family in Insterburg, East Prussia, during the last two years of the Second World War. Most of East Prussia was beyond the range of Allied bombers based in England until 1944.

By then even rural areas of the eastern Reich found themselves hit hard by strategic bombers as the Allies softened up East Prussia for the Red Army's planned invasion. Liane was unaware of these changing strategic realities. A devoted Christian like the rest of her family, she knew only that the newest members of her church and their home had vanished into a large bomb crater and that she seemed to spend more nights huddling in cold, dark underground shelters.

Despite the assurances from Nazi leaders that "no enemy would ever set foot on East Prussian soil," her mother heard rumors of the Red Army's first penetration into the Reich. A small town near Insterburg called Nemmersdorf had been occupied briefly. Before it could be retaken by the Wehrmacht, Liane's mother learned that "all the men, women and children had been murdered."

Worse, "all the women and young girls, down to the age of eight [even younger than Liane], were first raped and [then] nailed to barn doors, naked." Liane and the rest of her family moved to Lippehne, a beautiful, small town a few miles from Berlin where an uncle lived.

Eventually, the Red Army took Lippehne too and Liane and her family struggled to survive. She credits God with her survival and draws her inspiration for the title from Psalm 91:7,9, in which the Lord is identified as "my refuge."

In addition to being a memoir, it is clear that the author intends the book to be a witness to God's greatness and mercy. Some readers don't like being preached to, but I didn't find the author's piety to be at all distracting.

A lot of East Prussians were pious, devout Christians and the author's descriptions of the catastrophes she survived are straightforward and accurate insofar as I can determine. She doesn't demonize the Russians, or anybody else, nor does she sugar coat the actions by the fanatic Nazis her family encountered. Instead, she tries to recount what she experienced and it fits in with other accounts by other survivors.

I gave the book five stars because it is straightforward, easy to read and describes an important chapter in European history without grinding any political axes. If you are interested in European History, East Prussia, the Red Army's offensive into the Third Reich or the ordeals to which displaced people were subjected as World War II ended, this is a worthwhile book by someone who was there.

I found this beautiful book while looking for more information on the lost world of my ancestors. I got my answer, one of them is mentioned twice in this book, as the young Rabbi of the newly built synagogue in Gwozdziec, around 1731. The text is very accessible, detailed and extremely informative, the illustrations and drawings are amazing; one can only imagine the years of meticulous research that went into recreating the lost art of wooden houses of worship and the accurate description of daily life and interaction between the various ethnicities of the region. Recommended to everyone interested in the art and history of Europe (Poland, Ukraine and vicinity), religious buildings and Judaism. Congratulations to Professor Hubka, the result is a resplendent art book.