A landmark study of the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Poland is the latest book by Dr. Marek Chodakiewicz, Research Professor of History at the Institute of World Politics.
Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947, published by Lexington Books, is a 512-page work based on never-before seen original Nazi and Communist documents from local archives in Poland. IWP will hold an event concerning the book later this year.
A Lexington summary of the book follows:
Between 1939 and 1947 the county of Janów Lubelski, an agricultural area in central Poland, experienced successive occupations by Nazi Germany (1939-1944) and the Soviet Union (1944-1947). During each period the population, including the Polish majority and the Jewish, Ukrainian, and German minorities, reacted with a combination of accommodation, collaboration, and resistance. In this remarkably detailed and revealing study, Marek Jan Chodakiewicz analyzes and describes the responses of the inhabitants of occupied Janów to the policies of the ruling powers. He provides a highly useful typology of response to occupation, defining collaboration as an active relationship with the occupiers for reasons of self-interest and to the detriment of one’s neighbors; resistance as passive and active opposition; and accommodation as compliance falling between the two extremes. He focuses on the ways in which these reactions influenced relations between individuals, between social classes, and between ethnic groups. Casting new light on social dynamics within occupied Poland during and after World War II, Between Nazis and Soviets yields valuable insight for scholars of conflict studies.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- On the Eve, 1914-39
- The Local Elite and the German Authorities, 1939-44
- The Polish Majority under Nazi Rule, 1939-44
- Ethnic Minorities under Nazi Rule, 1939-44
- The Independentists and their Enemies, 1939-47
- The Local Elite under Soviet Occupation, 1944-47
- The Polish Majority under Soviet Occupation, 1944-47
- Ethnic Minorities under Soviet Occupation, 1944-47
- Accomodation and Resistance
- Maps
- Tables