Introduction

Following the German military defeat of Poland in September 1939, the Nazis launched a campaign of terror against the Poles, the predominantly Roman Catholic majority, whom they viewed as “subhumans.” German police units roved the country and executed thousands of Polish intellectuals, members of the clergy, and other civilians. Thousands were required to perform forced labor. In the lands vital to German expansion, hundreds of thousands of Poles were deported, replaced by ethnic Germans. Each of these measures was designed to wipe out Polish life and culture and to destroy Poland as a nation, making “living space” (Lebensraum) for the Germans. As a result, nearly every concentration camp had a sizable population of Polish inmates. The mortality rate for Polish prisoners was high. According to Franciszek Piper’s study, at least half of the estimated 140,000 Poles who were deported to Auschwitz perished in the camp, and all total, the Germans killed an estimated 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

In the face of Nazi brutality, Polish resistance was wide-spread. An underground state tried to maintain ties with the Polish government-in-exile. At great personal risk, individuals such as Jan Karski reported to the world the atrocities committed by the Germans. Others worked to rescue Jews, though the punishment for doing so was death. Polish partisans also supported Jewish resistance fighters, supplying them with arms, provisions, and information about the enemy. Nevertheless, a few recent scholarly works have renewed questions concerning active participation by some Poles in pogroms and atrocities committed against Jews. Consult this bibliography’s section on Polish-Jewish Relations for more information.

The following bibliography was compiled to guide readers to selected materials on Poles during the Holocaust that are in the Library’s collection. It is not meant to be exhaustive. Annotations are provided to help the user determine the item’s focus, and call numbers for the Museum’s Library are given in parentheses following each citation. Those unable to visit might be able to find these works in a nearby public library or acquire them through interlibrary loan. Follow the “Find in a library near you” link in each citation and enter your zip code at the Open WorldCat search screen. The results of that search indicate all libraries in your area that own that particular title. Talk to your local librarian for assistance.

Background Information

Biographies and Memoirs

Karski, Jan. Story of a Secret State. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944. (D 802 .P6 K3 1944) [Find in a library near you] Recounts the author's work as a courier for the Polish government-in-exile, including his arrest by the Gestapo and his clandestine visits to the Warsaw Ghetto. Originally published in 1944, prior to the war's end, it was republished in 2013 under the title Story of the Secret State: My report to the World.

Klukowski, Zygmunt. Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939-44. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. (D 802 .P62 Z3413 1993) [Find in a library near you] Reproduces the author’s diaries and accounts of occupation as a doctor in Szczebrzeszyn, near Zamość. Includes day-by-day accounts of births, deaths, deportations, liquidations, atrocities and partisan activities. Contains an index of names.

Korboński, Stefan, and F. B. Czarnomski. Fighting Warsaw: The Story of the Polish Underground State, 1939-1945. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2004. (D 802 .P6 K6813 2004) [Find in a library near you] Reproduces the author’s accounts of his activities as the head of the Polish underground organization during the war and their successful attempts to build a resistance movement. Includes photographs.

Lukas, Richard C., editor. Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. (D 804.5 .C47 F67 2004) [Find in a library near you] Provides first-hand accounts of 28 Poles who survived Nazi oppression. Includes concentration camp artwork, pictures, a bibliography, and an index.

Nel Siedlecki, Janusz, Krystyn Olszewski, and Tadeusz Borowski. We Were in Auschwitz. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2000. (D 805.5 .A96 N45 2000) [Find in a library near you] A translation of the original 1946 memoirs of three prisoners who survived Auschwitz and the death march to Dachau. Includes a glossary of slang terms from concentration camps. The library also contains a copy under the title, Byliśmy w Oświęcimiu.

Rowinski, Leokadia. That the Nightingale Return: Memoir of the Polish Resistance, the Warsaw Uprising and German P.O.W. Camps. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999. (D 802 .P6 R6483 1999) [Find in a library near you] A first-hand account of life in the Polish underground in occupied Warsaw and the failed uprising organized by the Polish Home Army. Recounts the author's capture by the Germans, imprisonment, liberation, and eventual emigration to the United States. Includes family portraits and documents.

Trzcinska-Croydon, Lilka. The Labyrinth of Dangerous Hours: A Memoir of the Second World War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. (D 805.5 .A96 T79 2004) [Find in a library near you] Recounts the author’s experiences as a member of the resistance, her time in Auschwitz, her survival of the death march, and liberation in Bergen-Belsen.

Wood, Thomas. Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1994. (D 802 .P6 W65 1994) [Find in a library near you] Documents Karski’s efforts as courier for the Polish government-in-exile, including his arrest by the Gestapo and his clandestine visits to the Warsaw Ghetto. Features several photographs, a glossary of names, and a section of sources and notes.

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Polish-Jewish Relations

Primary Sources

Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce. German Crimes in Poland. New York: Howard Fertig, 1982. (D 804 .G4 B53 1982) [Find in a library near you] Reproduces translations of original findings and reports about Nazi war crimes and atrocities committed on Polish soil. Includes maps and charts.

Kunert, Andrzej Krzysztof, editor. Polacy, Żydzi: wybór źródeł = Polen, Juden: Quellenauswahl = Poles, Jews: Selection of documents: 1939-1945. Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa: Instytut Dziedzictwa Narodowego : Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 2001. (Oversize DS 135 .P6 P628 2001) [Find in a library near you] Provides 143 documents from Jewish communities, underground press articles, reports by the Polish Underground State and Polish Government-in-Exile, as well as Nazi occupation authorities about Polish-Jewish relations during 1939-1945. All documents are transcribed and presented in English, German, and Polish languages.

Kunert, Andrzej Krzysztof, editor. "Żegota": The Council for Aid to Jews, 1942-1945: Selected Documents. Warsaw: Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa, 2002. (D 804.6 .Z4413 2002) [Find in a library near you] Provides translations of 38 primary source documents reflecting aid given by Poles to Jews, and the attempts of Poles to inform the Western Allies of atrocities in Poland. Includes biographies of Żegota members, a document index, and images of original documents.

Ringelblum, Emanuel. Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992. (DS 135 .P6 R45 1992) [Find in a library near you] A collection of the writings and reflections of Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944), historian of the Warsaw Ghetto. Records his reactions to events in the Ghetto, particularly as they inform his understanding of Polish-Jewish relations. Anticipates the public debate on the question of Polish responsibility during the Holocaust. Includes a foreword by renowned Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer discussing Ringelblum’s life and work.

Wituska, Krystyna, and Irene Tomaszewski. Inside a Gestapo Prison: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska, 1942-1944. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2006. (D 805 .G3 W5713 2006) [Find in a library near you] Reproduces translations of Krystyna Wituska’s correspondence from a Gestapo prison. Includes letters written by the courts announcing her death sentence for underground activities and the return of her letters to her parents. Contains an annotated list of people mentioned in the letters.

Museum Web Resources

Additional Resources

Subject Files

Ask at the reference desk to see the following subject files for newspaper and periodical articles:

“Poland–Bibliography”

“Poland–History–Occupation, 1939-1945”

“Poland–History, 1945-1950”

“Poland–Jewish Relations”

Subject Headings

To search library catalogs or other electronic search tools for materials on Poles during the Holocaust, use the following Library of Congress subject headings to retrieve the most relevant citations:

Poland–Ethnic relations

Poland–Foreign relations

Poland–History–1918-1945

Poland–History–Occupation, 1939-1945

World War, 1939-1945 Atrocities Poland

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