A Memoir Of The Warsaw Uprising

Author : Miron Bialoszewski
Publisher : New York Review of Books
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2015-10-27
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781590176979

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A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising by Miron Bialoszewski Pdf

On August 1, 1944, Miron Białoszewski, later to gain renown as one of Poland’s most innovative poets, went out to run an errand for his mother and ran into history. With Soviet forces on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Polish capital revolted against five years of Nazi occupation, an uprising that began in a spirit of heroic optimism. Sixty-three days later it came to a tragic end. The Nazis suppressed the insurgents ruthlessly, reducing Warsaw to rubble while slaughtering some 200,000 people, mostly through mass executions. The Red Army simply looked on. Białoszewski’s blow-by-blow account of the uprising brings it alive in all its desperate urgency. Here we are in the shoes of a young man slipping back and forth under German fire, dodging sniper bullets, collapsing with exhaustion, rescuing the wounded, burying the dead. An indispensable and unforgettable act of witness, A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising is also a major work of literature. Białoszewski writes in short, stabbing, splintered, breathless sentences attuned to “the glaring identity of ‘now.’” His pages are full of a white-knuckled poetry that resists the very destruction it records. Madeline G. Levine has extensively revised her 1977 translation, and passages that were unpublishable in Communist Poland have been restored.

Author : Miron Białoszewski
Publisher : Ardis Publishers
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1977
Category : Authors, Polish
ISBN : 0882332767

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A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising by Miron Białoszewski Pdf

Author : Śimḥah Rotem
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2001-10-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0300093764

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Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by Śimḥah Rotem Pdf

Recounts the struggle against the Nazi takeover of Warsaw and provides an account of the author's activities as head courier for the ZOB, the Jewish Fighting Organization.

Author : Andrew Borowiec
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2014-07-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780241964040

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Warsaw Boy by Andrew Borowiec Pdf

Warsaw Boy is the remarkable true story of a sixteen-year old boy soldier in war-torn Poland. Poland suffered terribly under the Nazis. By the end of the war six million had been killed: some were innocent civilians - half of them were Jews - but the rest died as a result of a ferocious guerrilla war the Poles had waged. On 1 August 1944 Andrew Borowiec, a fifteen-year-old volunteer in the Resistance, lobbed a grenade through the shattered window of a Warsaw apartment block onto some German soldiers running below. 'I felt I had come of age. I was a soldier and I'd just tried to kill some of our enemies'. The Warsaw Uprising lasted for 63 days: Himmler described it as 'the worst street fighting since Stalingrad'. Yet for the most part the insurgents were poorly equipped local men and teenagers - some of them were even younger than Andrew. Over that summer Andrew faced danger at every moment, both above and below ground as the Poles took to the city's sewers to creep beneath the German lines during lulls in the fierce counterattacks. Wounded in a fire fight the day after his sixteenth birthday and unable to face another visit to the sewers, he was captured as he lay in a makeshift cellar hospital wondering whether he was about to be shot or saved. Here he learned a lesson: there were decent Germans as well as bad. From one of the most harrowing episodes of the Second World War, this is an extraordinary tale of survival and defiance recounted by one of the few remaining veterans of Poland's bravest summer. Andrew Borowiec dedicates this book to all the Warsaw boys, 'especially those who never grew up'. Andrew Borowiec was born at Lodz in Poland in 1928. At fifteen he joined the Home Army, the main Polish resistance during the Second World War, and fought in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising. After the war he left Poland and attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Cyprus with his English wife Juliet.

Author : Yitzhak ("Antek") Zuckerman
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 669 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2023-09-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780520912595

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A Surplus of Memory by Yitzhak ("Antek") Zuckerman Pdf

In 1943, against utterly hopeless odds, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up to defy the Nazi horror machine that had set out to exterminate them. One of the leaders of the Jewish Fighting Organization, which led the uprisings, was Yitzhak Zuckerman, known by his underground pseudonym, Antek. Decades later, living in Israel, Antek dictated his memoirs. The Hebrew publication of Those Seven Years: 1939-1946 was a major event in the historiography of the Holocaust, and now Antek's memoirs are available in English. Unlike Holocaust books that focus on the annihilation of European Jews, Antek's account is of the daily struggle to maintain human dignity under the most dreadful conditions. His passionate, involved testimony, which combines detail, authenticity, and gripping immediacy, has unique historical importance. The memoirs situate the ghetto and the resistance in the social and political context that preceded them, when prewar Zionist and Socialist youth movements were gradually forged into what became the first significant armed resistance against the Nazis in all of occupied Europe. Antek also describes the activities of the resistance after the destruction of the ghetto, when 20,000 Jews hid in "Aryan" Warsaw and then participated in illegal immigration to Palestine after the war. The only extensive document by any Jewish resistance leader in Europe, Antek's book is central to understanding ghetto life and underground activities, Jewish resistance under the Nazis, and Polish-Jewish relations during and after the war. This extraordinary work is a fitting monument to the heroism of a people.

Author : Alexandra Richie
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 753 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2013-12-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9781466848474

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Warsaw 1944 by Alexandra Richie Pdf

Historian Alexandra Rich presents the full untold story of how one of history's bravest revolts ended in one of its greatest crimes. In 1943, the Nazis liquidated Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. A year later, they threatened to complete the city's destruction by deporting its remaining residents. A sophisticated and cosmopolitan community a thousand years old was facing its final days—and then opportunity struck. As Soviet soldiers turned back the Nazi invasion of Russia and began pressing west, the underground Polish Home Army decided to act. Taking advantage of German disarray and seeking to forestall the absorption of their country into the Soviet empire, they chose to liberate the city of Warsaw for themselves. Warsaw 1944 tells the story of this brave, and errant, calculation. For more than sixty days, the Polish fighters took over large parts of the city and held off the SS's most brutal forces. But in the end, their efforts were doomed. Scorned by Stalin and unable to win significant support from the Western Allies, the Polish Home Army was left to face the full fury of Hitler, Himmler, and the SS. The crackdown that followed was among the most brutal episodes of history's most brutal war, and the celebrated historian Alexandra Richie depicts this tragedy in riveting detail. Using a rich trove of primary sources, Richie relates the terrible experiences of individuals who fought in the uprising and perished in it. Her clear-eyed narrative reveals the fraught choices and complex legacy of some of World War II's most unsung heroes.

Author : Leokadia Rowińska
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015043822298

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That the Nightingale Return by Leokadia Rowińska Pdf

This poignant story of a young woman's coming of age in war time is a vivid reminder of the horror inflicted on Poland in WWII and beyond. As a member of the Polish Resistance, the author dodged snipers and soldiers to deliver military orders to Resistance leaders. She spent six months in German POW camps, until she was liberated by an army that included her future husband. Includes many bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Barbara Harshav
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : 0300150512

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Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by Barbara Harshav Pdf

Author : Jan Rosinski,Richard Hile
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 191 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2013-11-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786476930

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The Warsaw Underground by Jan Rosinski,Richard Hile Pdf

The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 abruptly ended author Jan Rosinski's student life, and propelled him into an activist role in the Polish resistance organization Armia Krajowa. In short order he became a talented forger of Nazi documents, especially travel papers that allowed many refugees to escape the city. His university studies in chemistry and physics created a role for him as an effective saboteur. Narrowly escaping death on several occasions, he was fearless in his pursuits. His dislike of the Nazi leadership was exceeded by an even greater hatred of the Soviet Army as it invaded Poland from the East less than a month later. Poland would be sealed off from the West for fifty years. Rosinski's travails as a POW in Germany eventually led him to the Allied forces in Germany; the U.S. became the beneficiary of his brilliant discoveries in atmospheric science. Jan was accompanied on his life's journey by his wife Barbara (d. 1993), who served as a medical officer in the underground army; Jan died in 2012.

Author : Lucyna B. Radlo
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2009-01-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780786452323

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Between Two Evils by Lucyna B. Radlo Pdf

This vivid memoir describes the author's experiences as young girl in Poland, forced to flee to Warsaw after the Nazi bombing of Brest at the outbreak of World War II. She recounts the realities of life in occupied Poland, including the arrest by the Gestapo of her father and his death soon after in Auschwitz, the family's participation in the black market and the Warsaw Uprising, and her capture and incarceration with her mother in a forced labor camp. Once released from the camp, they joined their Russian relatives in Austria only to quickly leave with them to avoid approaching Soviet forces, experiencing a month-long, often comical journey on an ox-driven cart back to the U.S. zone of Germany.

Author : Peter Dembowski
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2015-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780268077853

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Memoirs Red and White by Peter Dembowski Pdf

Born after World War I into an educated and progressive Polish family, Peter F. Dembowski was a teenager during the joint occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. His account of life as a young Polish soldier, as an immigrant to Canada, and finally as an American professor is a gripping narrative of life before, during, and after the horrors of World War II. Skillfully weaving a tapestry of emotion and history, Dembowski recounts the effects of loss: at age twelve, his father’s death; and later, the arrest of his mother and sister by the Gestapo and their execution in 1942 in the women’s concentration camp of Ravensbrück. Balancing those tragedies, Dembowski recalls the loving care given him by Janina Dembowska, the wife of his paternal uncle, as well as the inspiring strength of character he witnessed in his teachers and extended family. Still a very young-looking teenager, Dembowski became involved with the Polish Underground in 1942. Suspected as a konspirator, he was incarcerated in Pawiak Prison and later, after a rare release, fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. His on-the-ground account describes the deprivations Polish soldiers faced as well as the fierce patriotism they shared. With the defeat of the Uprising, he was deported to Sandbostel; once liberated, he joined the Polish Army in Italy, serving there for two years. In 1947, Dembowski made the momentous decision not to return to Poland but rather to emigrate to Canada. We learn of his stint as a farmhand and, later, of his studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He continued his education in France, receiving a Doctorat de l’Université de Paris in Russian philology and, in 1960, a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in medieval French. In tandem with his successful academic career teaching at the University of Toronto and at the University of Chicago, Dembowski describes his happy marriage and the joy of family life.

Author : Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780739172704

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Kaia, Heroine of the 1944 Warsaw Rising by Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm Pdf

Kaia, Heroine of the 1944 Warsaw Rising tells the story of one woman, whose life encompasses a century of Polish history. Full of tragic and compelling experiences such as life in Siberia, Warsaw before World War II, the German occupation, the Warsaw Rising, and life in the Soviet Ostashkov prison, Kaia was deeply involved with the battle that decimated Warsaw in 1944 as a member of the resistance army and the rebuilding of the city as an architect years later. Kaia's father was expelled from Poland for conspiring against the Russian czar. She spent her early childhood near Altaj Mountain and remembered Siberia as a "paradise". In 1922, the family returned to free Poland, the train trip taking a year. Kaia entered the school system, studied architecture, and joined the Armia Krajowa in 1942. After the legendary partisan Hubal's death, a courier gave Kaia the famous leader's Virtuti Militari Award to protect. She carried the medal for 54 years. After the Warsaw Rising collapsed, she was captured by the Russian NKVD in Bialystok and imprisoned. In one of many interrogations, a Russian asked about Hubal's award. When Kaia replied that it was a religious relic from her father, she received only a puzzled look from the interrogator. Knowing that another interrogation could end differently, she hid the award in the heel of her shoe where it was never discovered. In 1946, Kaia, very ill and weighing only 84 pounds, returned to Poland, where she regained her health and later worked as an architect to the rebuild the totally decimated Warsaw.

Author : Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
Publisher : Frontline Books
Page : 446 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2011-07-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473819627

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The Secret Army by Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski Pdf

Tadeusz Komorowski was born in 1895 in Galicia, a region then ruled by the Austrians, and he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the First World War. Poland regained its independence in 1918, and Komorowski fought against the Russians in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–21. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Komorowski was the commander of units defending the Vistula River, but he was pushed eastwards by the fierce advance. Despite being surrounded by German forces, he escaped to Cracow. Although he planned to escape to the West, he was ordered to stay and start a resistance movement. He stayed in Cracow until the summer of 1941, when he sent to Warsaw. The legend of ‘Bór’ was about to begin. Komorowski was appointed to lead the Home Army in June 1943. The Polish Resistance carried out sabotage and vital intelligence for the Allies, but their main task was to prepare for an uprising when the Nazis were in retreat to help liberate the country. The Polish Government-in-Exile gave the order to commence on 1 August 1944. Tragically, Stalin had plans for Poland after the war: Soviet troops sat outside Warsaw and left the Poles to their fate. The Resistance lasted, incredibly, 63 days. Komorowski was sentenced to death by Hitler, but the order was rescinded. The tale of Bór and the Uprising is the story of a proud nation and their fight against enemies and betrayal by allies. For further reading on the Polish Secret Army visit the Doomed Soldiers Project Website - http://www.doomedsoldiers.com/

Author : Wladyslaw Szpilman
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2011-12-08
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781780222684

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The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman Pdf

The bestselling memoir of a Jewish pianist who survived the war in Warsaw against all odds. 'We are drawn in to share his surprise and then disbelief at the horrifying progress of events, all conveyed with an understated intimacy and dailiness that render them painfully close... riveting' OBSERVER On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside - so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, THE PIANIST is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling. 'The images drawn are unusually sharp and clear... but its moral tone is even more striking: Szpilman refuses to make a hero or a demon out of anyone' LITERARY REVIEW

Author : Helena Szereszewska
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 520 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015040137112

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Memoirs from Occupied Warsaw, 1940-1945 by Helena Szereszewska Pdf

These memoirs recount the struggle for survival of a middle-class Jewish family during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Inside the Warsaw ghetto, the author witnessed the daily battle against overcrowding, hunger and disease.