1945. Wojna i pokój - Magdalena Grzebałkowska

New edition of the bestselling book by Magdalena Grzebałkowska, awarded the Readers' Nike and the Teresa Torańska Award for the best reporter's book of the year.

A reporter's tale of the most dramatic year of the 20th century.

The author enters lands that for a while were no man's land or had just been seized by the new authorities, to take a close look at the fate of the last living witnesses of that time. People who, chased by fear, tried to get across the ice-bound Vistula Lagoon (there were half a million of them), displaced persons who found their previous owners in their new homes, children brought up in the Otwock orphanage for Holocaust survivors, looters, for whom the liberated land became a giant Ikea store, people who were just a hair ahead of their own death. He gives voice to the victims, although he also devotes considerable space to the executioners - especially when he can thus show the post-war confusion of roles and fates.

“1945. Wojna i pokój” is a book that puts the history of 70 years ago at your fingertips again.

The historical narrative (...) is full of soulless dates and meaningless names. (...) The history of the Warsaw Uprising is the epic fate of the AK youth, Baczynski and “Rudy” with “Alek.” Less read, instead, is the diary of Miron Bialoszewski. Grzebałkowska does what he did before: she restores the memory of civilians, thousands recorded only in statistics. She reminds us that heroes are transformed into bronze, and civilians must live on. He gives them a voice and does it exceedingly well. This is an important book, but even more important is that it shows a narrative that we lack today.

The book is written in Polish.

Technical data
Author: Magdalena Grzebałkowska
Year of publication: 2022
Format: 165 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Agora