Description: Survivors tells the harrowing story of life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation. As the epicenter of Polish resistance, Warsaw was subjected to violent persecution, the ghettoization of the city's Jewish community, the suppression of multiple uprisings, and an avalanche of restrictions that killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed countless lives. In this study into the unique brutality of wartime Warsaw, Jadwiga Biskupska traces how Nazi Germany set out to dismantle the Polish nation and state for long-term occupation by targeting its intelligentsia. She explores how myriad resistance projects emerged within the intelligentsia who were bent on maintaining national traditions and rebuilding a Polish state. In contrast to other studies on the Holocaust and Second World War, this book focuses on Polish behavior and explains who was in a position to contest the occupation or collaborate with it, while answering lingering questions and addressing controversies about the Nazi empire and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.
Brief description: Jadwiga Biskupska is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University in Hunstville, Texas. She is co-director of Second World War Research Group, North America (SWWRGNA) and a former fellow of the Mandel Center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Review Quotes: 'This is an excellent book on Polish history but at the same time it should be used as a key text in the study of social transformation during violent events and under occupation, constituting an important addition to these studies. Warsaw's fate adds to the study of cities and societies during traumatic events. Parallels can be drawn between Warsaw and other cities such as Leningrad or Paris. Unfortunately, we are confronted with further and ongoing similar events, which, in spite of their different geographical locations and distinct political scenarios, still lead to the physical destruction of cities, and with that still impose on the intelligentsia the obligation to defend the intellectual and cultural identity of the people there.' Anita Prażmowska, European History Quarterly