Best of
Poland

2019

Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II


Roger Moorhouse - 2019
    

Widziałem pięknego dzięcioła


Michał Skibiński - 2019
    In order to improve his handwriting, Michal's teacher gives him a simple assignment: keep a journal, writing one sentence a day. Eighty years later, Michal's diary has been gorgeously illustrated with beautifully atmospheric paintings. Eloquent in its simplicity, the journal is a remarkable artifact that captures the innocence of childhood and the trauma of war. The journal starts out with a typical boy's observations: July 15: I went to a stream with my brother and teacher. July 23: I found a caterpillar. However over the course of weeks, menacing details emerge. July 27: A plane was circling over Anin. September 1: The war has begun. September 3: I hid from planes. September 14: Warsaw is bravely defending itself. These haunting entries are interspersed with visits from relatives, a soccer game, a trip to a park, an ice cream cone. Photographs of pages from Michal's diary enhance the poignancy of this simple record--an ordinary holiday interrupted by war; a life changed forever by an extraordinary moment in history.

In the Warsaw Ghetto


Glenn Haybittle - 2019
    Together with almost half a million other Jews, Ala and her family are forced into the ghetto, where she struggles with feelings of guilt at her comparative privileged circumstances. Then Ala's enigmatic teacher forms a dance company with the intention of putting on a performance for the ghetto's residents.Max Silberman, Ala's uncle, is a bachelor, who still carries the flame for the girl he knew at university. She married someone else and he hasn't seen her for over a decade. When he meets her in the ghetto and discovers she and her two children have been abandoned by her Catholic husband all his dormant hopes are incongruously revived amidst the squalor and destitution surrounding him.In the Warsaw Ghetto tells the deeply moving story of Ala and Max's struggle to preserve their aspirations in the midst of the inhumane conditions of the Warsaw ghetto, until the deportations to the death camps begin and the Jews organise themselves into a fighting force determined to oppose the Nazis.

Silent Water


P.K. Adams - 2019
    Less than two years earlier, Italian noblewoman Bona Sforza arrived in Poland’s capital from Bari as King Zygmunt’s new bride. She came from Italy accompanied by a splendid entourage, including Contessa Caterina Sanseverino who oversees the ladies of the Queen’s Chamber. Caterina is still adjusting to the life in this northern kingdom of cold winters, unfamiliar customs, and an incomprehensible language when a shocking murder rocks the court on Christmas night. It is followed by another a few days later. The victims have seemingly nothing in common. Gossip, speculation, and suspicion are rife, but the perpetrator remains elusive as the court heads into the New Year. As the official investigation stalls, Caterina—aided by Sebastian Konarski, a junior secretary in the king’s household—sets out to find the killer. With clues beginning to point to the queen’s innermost circle, the pair are soon racing against time to stop another murder. Silent Water is a story of power and its abuse, and the extremes to which a person may go to find redress for justice denied. Although set at the dawn of the Renaissance era, its themes carry uncanny parallels to some of the most topical social issues of the 21st century. "This clever and suspenseful murder mystery casts a fresh and sparkling light on the world beloved by fans of The Tudors and The Borgias. P. K. Adams, author of two previous novels about the twelfth-century healer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen, masterfully brings Renaissance Poland to life without ever losing track of the human passions that drive her characters. A wonderful start to a new series." —C. P. Lesley, author of Song of the Siren and other novels

Cinders of a Blind Man Who Could See


Kev Harrison - 2019
    Now Owen must face it or risk losing his son forever. A Short Sharp Shocks! Book.

From the Realm of a Dying Sun. Volume 1: IV. SS-Panzerkorps and the Battles for Warsaw, July–November 1944


Douglas E. Nash - 2019
    Not satisfied with allowing his nascent force to be commanded in combat by army headquarters of the Wehrmacht, Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, began to create his own SS corps and army headquarters beginning with the SS-Panzerkorps in July 1942. As the number of Waffen-SS divisions increased, so did the number of corps headquarters, with 18 corps and two armies being planned or activated by the war’s end.The histories of the first three SS corps are well known – the actions of I, II, and III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps and their subordinate divisions, including the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Das Reich, Hitlerjugend, Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg and Nordland divisions, have been thoroughly documented and publicized. Overlooked in this pantheon is another SS corps that never fought in the west or in Berlin but one that participated in many of the key battles fought on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war – the IV SS-Panzerkorps. Activated during the initial stages of the defense of Warsaw in late July 1944, the corps, consisting of both the 3. and 5. SS-Panzer Divisions (Totenkopf and Wiking, respectively) was born in battle and spent the last ten months of the war in combat, figuring prominently in the battles of Warsaw, the attempted Relief of Budapest, Operation Spring Awakening, the defense of Vienna, and the withdrawal into Austria where it finally surrendered to U.S. forces in May 1945.Herbert Otto Gille’s IV SS-Panzerkorps was renowned for its tenacity, high morale and, above all, its lethality, whether conducting a hard-hitting counterattack or a stubborn defense in situations where its divisions were hopelessly outnumbered. Often embroiled in heated disputes with its immediate Wehrmacht higher headquarters over his seemingly cavalier conduct of operations, Gille’s corps remained to the bitter end one of the Third Reich’s most reliable and formidable field formations.

Hidden Pearl


J.E. Laufer - 2019
    At 10 years old, Pearl's world and her family's lives were turned upside down. Hidden Peal is an unforgettable story, vividly capturing young Pearl's ordeal during the Holocaust. This is a story about courage, hope and the resilience of a young girl and her family during a devastating time in our history. It is a book for YA and adults.

Polish Your Kitchen: A Book of Memories: Christmas Edition


Anna Hurning - 2019
    The book is divided into 3 sections: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Desserts. Recipes include classic dishes like sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi, wild mushroom soup, red beetroot soup with mushroom dumplings and cheesecake. The author, Anna Hurning created the original recipes and the accompanying photography for the book. Anna is the creator of the popular Polish food blog: "Polish Your Kitchen". She titled the book "a book of memories", because the recipes she created are a compilation of her time spent in the kitchen with her Polish grandma, Babcia Stasia. Anna moved to the US in her mid 20s and spent almost two decades there trying to stay connected to her Polish roots through food.