Not for the faint of heart or stomach. Kozinski's tale of a young boy's wanderings through backwater Eastern Europe during WWII is a painstakingly beautiful foray into the intricacies of horror. And I mean real horror. I thank the Gods above that no one has made a movie of this one. If it were, and I went, which I might not, I would probably have my eyes closed for half of it. The book is really about how low the human race can sink. And folks, it's pretty damn low. There are no heroes and no excuses here. The technique of having the whole thing told, quite believably, from the point of view of a child reinforces the growing sense throughout the book of the futility, the self-perpetualting void, of violence. I would touch on scenes of note, but I had egg salad for lunch, and I'm feeling a little queasy just thinking about it. Actually, more than making me feel queasy, reading it and thinking about The Painted Bird make me want to weep. I dunno, I can't think of anyone I would reccommend this book to, but I'm glad it exists.

I have to tell you that this is a very disturbing novel, but let's not forget that it is recounting a very disturbing and horrific period of humankind (the mass extermination of Europe's Jews) so actually, the subject is to blame. This is one of the most underrated and powerful novels that I have ever read, and it will surely leave its mark on you. The book will take you to the depths of hell - which are, I discovered, indeed of human origin - and give you a renewed appreciation for life and the inate freedoms and liberties which we all need to vigilantly protect.

Please note however that this novel may not be appropriate for very young adults or immature readers.

In the heart-breaking days and weeks that the world watched as the Wehrmacht smashed mercilessly into the belly of Poland in September of 1939, the Polish armed forces fought back with largely unrecognized ferocity and courage against overwhelming odds. As author Stephen Zaloga describes so forcefully in this wonderful new book, Polish forces had been chastised and prevented through continuing European pressure into delaying any meaningful army mobilization that might have been considered provocative to the Germans, so they were unable to answer the blitzkrieg tactics with sufficient forces early enough to really stem the tide. Moreover, while it had been widely recognized that based on topography and lack of badly needed fortifications the frontiers were virtually indefensible, the political reality dictated against abandoning the frontiers in favor husbanding their limited forces into a more meaningful defense of the realm closer to centers of population, thus, the Polish forces attempted to defend an area too large, too wide, and too flat to do so effectively.

This work continues the excellent exposition begun by the same author in "The Polish Campaign 1939", extending and completing his controversial account which effectively debunks many common misconceptions regarding the nature of the Polish actions against the Germans in the all-too brief campaign. The author once more contends that many of the commonplaces regarding Polish conduct during the war are inaccurate and slanderous, including the idea that Polish cavalry actually attacked German tanks with swords drawn, or that the entire Polish Air Force was demolished on the first day of the war. According to Zaloga, neither supposition is true. And, while cavalry was used during the campaign, its application was much more clever and much more ingenious than previously believed.

This is a quite comprehensive book, with extensive coverage of every element of the campaign as seen from both sides of the conflict. Several fascinating aspects of the war emerge for further consideration, such as the fact that in the Battle of Bzura , the Poles caught the Wehrmacht with its pants down, with the Germans badly over-extended. The capability of the Polish forces to hold their own against their foe was demonstrated with the initial attack, in which the Poles slammed two German divisions backwards into retreat, capturing over 1,500 prisoners in the process. I was also surprised to discover that the Poles had deployed the advanced techniques using tungsten-core anti-tank shells, which they then used on a limited basis in the conflict. The author also shows how the cowardice and malice of the French misled the Poles into believing their allies might intervene, when historians have clearly proven the French actually never had any such action in mind. This is an intriguing book, and a wonderful addition to the growing library covering the German-Polish exchange in the fall of 1939. Enjoy!

In the Osprey Campaign series volume, Poland 1939: the birth of Blitzkrieg, Stephen Zaloga, a renowned expert on armored vehicles and eastern European military affairs, continues his tireless effort to bring the facts to Western eyes of the opening round of the Second World War. Readers familiar with Zaloga's 1985 full-length book The Polish Campaign 1939 will recognize the antecedents of this volume. Zaloga, an American who has enjoyed extensive access to Polish historical archives, seeks to de-bunk the myths about the Polish campaign of 1939 which were perpetuated by wartime Nazi propaganda and post-war ignorance caused by the Iron Curtain. Myths such as the tales of Polish cavalry charging German tanks with swords and the destruction of the Polish air force on the first day of the war are clearly exposed as falsehoods designed to boost Nazi military prowess to the world. As usual, Zaloga brings his extensive analytic skills and language skills together in concert to produce a valuable piece of research that would otherwise be unavailable to most English readers.

Zaloga begins with a short introduction, a section on the origins of the campaign and a campaign chronology. In standard Osprey Campaign series format, Zaloga then has three sections covering opposing commanders, opposing plans and opposing armies, which comprise nearly a quarter of the volume. The campaign narrative itself, covering all major air and ground operations in the Polish theater between 1 September - 6 October 1939, is fifty pages long. Zaloga concludes with a four page aftermath section, notes on the battlefield today and a rather detailed guide to further reading. Ground order of battle information for the Germans, Poles and Soviets is provided, but there is unfortunately no listing of air units. This volume has five 2-D maps (dispositions on 1, 7 and 17 September 1939 and two on the Bzura River counterattack) and three 3-D "Bird's Eye View" maps (the Polish defense of Westerplatte, the Battle of Mokra and the Battle for Warsaw). There are also three excellent color battle scenes: the cavalry defense at Mokra, a Stuka attack and street fighting in Warsaw. The overall graphic quality of this volume, including the numerous photographs, is excellent.

There are many strong points in this short volume, even if much of the research is merely a refinement from his earlier volume. In particular, the defense conducted by a Polish Cavalry brigade at Mokra against the 4th Panzer Division on 1 September demonstrates that the initial German use of armored units in combat could be clumsy and costly at times. Zaloga makes a good point that initially the German Luftwaffe was doctrinally un-prepared for close air support missions for the army and instead could only employ pre-planned strikes determined by the air staff; after two weeks of war the Germans slow introduced the close air support techniques that would be successful in 1940-1941 (does this initial inability to conduct CAS sound familiar to modern soldiers?). Zaloga also makes a good point that the Poles did have some counterattack capabilities - they were not just punch dummies - and the Battle of the Bzura on 9-14 September 1939 caught the Germans over-extended. In the initial attack, the Poles were able to force two German divisions to retreat and actually captured 1,500 prisoners! Other interesting points include the fact that the Poles were the first to deploy tungsten-core anti-tank projectiles but the ammunition was developed as a "secret weapon" and not distributed until after the invasion began, thereby limiting its use. Odd episodes, like the single Polish cavalry raid into East Prussia, a tank-versus-tank battle and a cavalry-versus-cavalry battle are also detailed.

Although Zaloga concedes that the outcome of the campaign was a foregone conclusion, particularly given Anglo-French passivity and Soviet aggression, he provides a valuable discussion on the two opposing Polish concepts of defense. The defense that made the most sense - concede the border areas and concentrate behind the Vistula River - was politically unacceptable, whereas the most politically palatable strategy - frontier defense - was militarily unsound. The Poles reluctantly adopted the latter strategy out of the necessity to avoid German "nibbling tactics" against the disputed Danzig corridor; readers should note that this was the same strategic dilemma faced by NATO planners on the Central Front in the Cold War.

There are only two weaknesses in this otherwise superb account. First, Zaloga is deficient in the opposing leaders section, as he usually is in these Osprey titles. Zaloga spends three pages discussing the German leaders, but spends three-quarters of that space discussing the German High Command: Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Brauchitsch and Halder. The two German army group commanders in Poland - von Rundstedt and von Bock - receive only two short paragraphs. General Blaskowitz is the only German army commander who receives more than cursory mention - the other four receive no mention. Even Guderian - the pre-imminent panzer leader in Poland - receives almost no mention. This section was poorly crafted, with too much emphasis on the strategic rather than operational leaders. The other weakness in the book is that Zaloga appears to have accepted the misleading hypothesis that a major French attack might have saved Poland by causing a German collapse; this fallacious hypothesis was advanced by Ernest May in his book, Strange Victory. As I noted in my review of May's book, this hypothesis is unsupportable and deeply flawed. Even Zaloga should have noted that by the time that Gamelin promised to begin an offensive against German - two weeks after war began - the Germans had already overrun most of Poland and Soviet invasion was imminent. The Poles might have been impressed by French military prowess but they were also aware that French doctrine for "methodical battle" called for slow, carefully prepared offensives. Thus even if the French had been able and willing to honor their promise of military aid, it would have been too late to save the Polish army.

The amount of scholarship and sheer number of facts included in this book are quite amazing. The effort put into assembling all this information must have been prodigious. Unfortunately the book does have several drawbacks. First it reads as if it was not edited before publication and in some areas looks like it was written on a home computer. Not only are there quite a few mispellings of easy words (almost certainly just typos that were never caught) but in my copy there are unexplained gaps in the sentences which then inexplicably begin again at the beginning of the next line. Also the illustrations although numerous are not of very high quality from a technical viewpoint. The closeup pictures of individual people are fine but some of the reproduced paintings are totally uninterpretable. In one of a supposed cavalry charge in my copy all you can make out are a few horses and a tower surrounded by smoke because of the poor reproduction (page 150). Also it should be noted that all of the pictures are black and white except for the beautiful picture of the winged horsemen on the front of the cover. The included maps also may have been quite useful in their original format but after being reduced to fit into this rather small page format leave much to be desired. Finally the book reads more like a chronicle or an outline for a history book in that many chapters are merely one sentence listings of various Polish accomplishments strung together page after page. In summary I would give 5 stars for effort and 3 stars for execution for a combined score of 4. People already familiar with Polish history and with Polish historical individuals may get more out of the book than people looking for an illustrated introductory history. A short explanation of the pronunciation of Polish names would have been very helpful to non-Polish readers like myself. Can anyone explain just what the author meant by Positivism which is used in many different locations but if it was explained in the book I must have missed it? Still glad I read this book and I did learn a lot from it but it had the potential to be really great with a few improvements.

This one-of-a-kind atlas covers every major episode of history--from prehistoric times to the present. Must reading!

In 1979 my mother, wife, two daughters, and I toured Poland. We traveled and lived in a VW camper van for 21 days. On our next trip we want to travel a little more comfortably and still find reasonable accomodations for an extended trip. As genealogists most of the time we travel off the beaten path and to the villages of our ancestors. I found this book to be the perfect planning tool.

After setting your itinerary you turn to the Index of Cities & Villages to locate the nearest village - province to your destinations. Then turn to the Directory and locate the page number for the province. Turn to the appropriate page to find the accomodations that meet your needs.

Another feature of the book is the identification of representatives in Poland that can assist you with travel services such as tours, transportation, medical services, accommodations, theater tickets, etc. The author has also included suggested sites to visit or historical notes on most provinces.

I recommend this book to any traveler to Poland, especially genealogists. I cannot imagine planning our next trip without it.

Paul Lipinski, President Polish Genealogical Society of California

I am planning my first trip to Poland. I want to see the Poland that the natives see, - no Western hotels and restaurants. I am interested in the culture from the Polish perspective - my ancestral background, not from an American perspective - my contemporary relatives. I bought this book because it is the best, and for the personal help available from the hospitality hosts/hostesses in Poland- to help me plan the trip and assist me once I am in Poland. No other book offers such help.

A very comprehensive and thoroughly researched reference for Polish regional and national dances. Published in english it explores the origins and sources of dances through numerous musically notated examples which have original dialect lyrics plus translations. Dances are explored in their regional, historic and cultural context. A Tailored reference for choreographers, dance groups and musicians it can also be read to obtain an understanding of regional influences, movement and progression of traditional folk dance types within Poland. The text provides detailed instructions for dance formations and choreography with diagrams showing body stance and presentation for performance. The authors have produced a thorough reference with over a hundred examples that preserves a representative portion of this special heritage.

I was expecting a pamphlet and I received a treasure. Particularly, I enjoyed the background on the dances, the clarity of expression in describing the steps, and the author herself. A surprising plus, all the Polish words and captions are given a pronunciation key, a terrific help for those of us who have lost our heritage language. I am honored to have a signed copy. Also available are two cassettes with the music for the dances, recorded by the author in her travels in Poland. This book is a treasure for dance teachers and everyone who believes that heritage should be preserved.

Set down in the middle of Birkenau, an infamous concentration camp, Lili (Liana) tells readers her story of pain, hope, and dispair. Time is lost, and that loss causes many amazing things to happen. Truthful tales of death, life, and living death wrench the reader in every direction manageable. Easily read by any person in their teenage years or older.

i guess i'm confused. i am sitting here with a copy of "smoke over birkenau" by seweryna szmaglewska, translated from the polish by jadwiga rynas. henry holt and company n.y. copyright 1947. first printing. Did she change her name?

Who was Saint Hyacinth? The story starts with a chance meeting in Rome where he witnesses (the future) Saint Dominic raising a man from death. From that point the book is one miracle and amazing encounter on Hyacinth's journey across North Europe. He raised the dead, walks on water, fled the invading Tatars from a Cathedral carrying a 500 lb. Statue. All thoughout he dispenses his own brand of spiruatilty and humility. The book reads liks a combination of a self help book like the One minute Manager and the excitement of the Raiders of the Lost Arc. Kids will love this book to be read to them. They will never forget Saint Hyacinth. I know I never will.

Tells the wonderful story of how St. Hyacinth and his fellow Dominicans planted the Holy Catholic Faith in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and all over Northern Europe. Many were the remarkable events in this Saint's life, including the raising of the dead! For children ages 10 and up. 17 illustrations. 189pp. PB. Imprimatur.

I am in the process of reading this book now. It is really quite good; particularly for a reader who is interested in comparative religion, history of religion, or one who is examining spirituality. All these apply to me. My copy, a 1955 edition, was lent to me by a very dear lady about a year ago. I am so glad I did not return it unread, as I had planned! I almost feel like Mrs. Buksbazen had me in mind when she wrote it. I am sure that many Orthodox Jews will understandably resent its content. I can appreciate that sentiment. But I also am happy I decided to read it. It speaks to ME.

this book is a MUST read. it is the story of Yente (written by her daughter). it is a love story, a story about REAL faith, a story of courage and a story of hope. if you want to be drawn in, challanged, lifted up, inspired, humbled, and you are serious about your faith, or are seeking God..... read this book!

Pearl Benisch recounts her personal experiences as a teen-aged girl during the Holocaust, which tossed her from horror to horror. Yet she maintains a level of humanity and courage that fills the reader with hope and awe. The girls in this book were far superior to the supposedly "master race" that tried so hard to break them.

This is moving and thought-provoking reading for anyone. I highly recommend it.

I was assigned this book for a Jewish History report. After reading about the author's experience, her strength and the courage of the "Zehnerschaft"- the group of 10 Beth Jacob girls, I began to feel like I could better myself in the way they did. When starved and tired from a full day's work, they would refuse the small amount of food that was given to them, thereby abiding by the laws of Kashrus. These 10 girls never lost faith in God and survived because of their hope to return to Israel. In my opinion, this book is a remarkable read and a good way to learn about the many concentration camps the Jews went through and preserve the history of the six million innocent people who perished by the hands of the Germans.

Through the eyes and mind of the now more experienced Pirx, Lem draws conclusions of future's hold on human & android relations, philosophical and psycological attachments included.
For a quick, classic Lem read, this is one of the tops. The collection starts with a few shorts, though deep contemplation, and finishes with two superb longer stories. My two favorites are 'The Accident' (short) and 'The Inquest' (long).

This book is great, although I'm not too crazy about the translation. Realistically though, if you're not planning on learning to speak Polish fluently anytime soon, you should get this copy. It's not that bad. Lem is a great, realistic, down-to-earthy (no pun intended) Science Fiction author. Also get Solaris,...and Fiasco.

Lem, as always, comes through. In some of his other work he takes on philosophy, science, religion, usually with a humorous strain; in this book, and its predecessor, Tales of Pirx the Pilot, he chooses to write straight hard SF. However, the image usually conjured up by 'hard' SF is Asimov, Heinlen, and so on, meaning writing anchored on scientific devices and with generally far less time spent on character development. Pirx is a welcome antidote. He is an engineer and pilot, grounded in a reality made up not of quantum-physical theories but of nuts and bolts. He's a professional and strictly blue-collar. REading this book might give you an idea of what the future REALLY will be like.