The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War

Description

A powerful, compelling human story and a vital forgotten history of WW2 By almost every measure the fate of the inhabitants of Poland was the most terrible of any group in the Second World War. Following the destruction of its armed forces in the autumn of 1939, the Republic of Poland was partitioned between Nazi and Soviet forces and officially ceased to exist. As the war progressed millions of Poles were killed, with each phase unleashing a further round, from the industrialised genocide of Treblinka to the crushing of the Warsaw Rising. Polish Jews were all to be murdered, Christians reduced to a semi-literate slave class. This powerful and original new book is perhaps the most important 'missing' work on the whole conflict, describing both the fate of those trapped within occupied Poland and of the millions of Poles who were able to escape.

Halik Kochanski is a British historian. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and member of the British Commission for Military History, she taught history at several universities and is the author of The Eagle Unbowed- Poland and the Poles in the Second World War.

[A] remarkable book ... [Kochanski] brings to the subject not only an impressive grasp of the military and political context, but also a balance, neutrality and honesty few could manage, combined with the intelligence, imagination and empathy necessary to grasp the true depth of the experience she recounts ... This book is history at its best. It tells the whole story, and tells it well, with just the right mixture of detachment and empathy, in crisp, readable prose. But it also speaks to the imagination and makes the reader think - and not just about the subject in hand * Standpoint * Until Halik Kochanski's The Eagle Unbowed nobody had written a comprehensive English-language history of Poland at war ... She uncovers details that will surprise even history geeks ... Ms Kochanski marshals an impressive and comprehensive array of English and Polish material * Economist * An informative, authoritative and wide-ranging account of the tragedy that befell Poland and its inhabitants, Gentiles and Jews, during the war and its aftermath ... An engaging and important book -- Hubert Zawadzki (author of A Concise History of Poland) Poland's war was so terrible as to almost defy summary ... this book is opinionated, fluid and forceful -- Oliver Bullough * New Statesman *