Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

War Through Children's Eyes: The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations, 1939–1941

Jan Tomasz Gross

4/5 ( ratings)

On September 17, 1939, two weeks after the German invasion of Poland, Soviet troops occupied the eastern half of Poland and swiftly imposed a new political and economic order. Following a plebiscite, in early November the area was annexed to the Ukraine and Belorussia. Beginning in the winter of 1939–40, Soviet authorities deported over one million Poles, many of them children, to various provinces of the Soviet Union. After the German attack on the USSR in summer 1941, the Polish government in exile in London received permission from its new-found ally to organize military units among the Polish deportees and later to transfer Polish civilians to camps in the British-controlled Middle East. There the children were able to attend Polish-run schools.The 120 essays translated here were selected from compositions written by the students of these schools. What makes these documents unique is the perception of these witnesses: a child’s eye view of events no adult would consider worth mentioning. In simple language, filled with misspellings and grammatical errors, the children recorded their experiences, and sometimes their surprisingly mature understanding, of the invasion and the Societ occupation, the deportations eastward, and life in the work camps and kolkhozes. The horrors of life in the USSR were vivid memories; privation, hunger, disease, and death had been so frequent that they became accepted commonplaces. Moreover, as the editors point out in their introductory study, these Polish children were not alone in their suffering. All the nationalities that came under Soviet rule shared their fate.

Pages: 290

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Release: September 15, 2019

War Through Children's Eyes: The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations, 1939–1941

Jan Tomasz Gross

4/5 ( ratings)

On September 17, 1939, two weeks after the German invasion of Poland, Soviet troops occupied the eastern half of Poland and swiftly imposed a new political and economic order. Following a plebiscite, in early November the area was annexed to the Ukraine and Belorussia. Beginning in the winter of 1939–40, Soviet authorities deported over one million Poles, many of them children, to various provinces of the Soviet Union. After the German attack on the USSR in summer 1941, the Polish government in exile in London received permission from its new-found ally to organize military units among the Polish deportees and later to transfer Polish civilians to camps in the British-controlled Middle East. There the children were able to attend Polish-run schools.The 120 essays translated here were selected from compositions written by the students of these schools. What makes these documents unique is the perception of these witnesses: a child’s eye view of events no adult would consider worth mentioning. In simple language, filled with misspellings and grammatical errors, the children recorded their experiences, and sometimes their surprisingly mature understanding, of the invasion and the Societ occupation, the deportations eastward, and life in the work camps and kolkhozes. The horrors of life in the USSR were vivid memories; privation, hunger, disease, and death had been so frequent that they became accepted commonplaces. Moreover, as the editors point out in their introductory study, these Polish children were not alone in their suffering. All the nationalities that came under Soviet rule shared their fate.

Pages: 290

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Release: September 15, 2019

More books from Jan Tomasz Gross

Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland

Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Złote żniwa

3.4/5 ( ratings)

...bardzo dawno temu, mniej więcej w zeszły piątek...

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia

4.3/5 ( ratings)

The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939 1944

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Wokół "Sąsiadów". Polemiki i wyjaśnienia

3.1/5 ( ratings)

Wokół strachu. Dyskusja o książce Jana T. Grossa

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?