Bearing Witness A Personal Perspective on Sixty Years of Polish History [Paperback]

Bearing Witnessoffers personal insight into the collective experience of Poles over the last sixty years. One of Poland's leading social scientists combines objective, academic rigor with autobiographical, eyewitness accounts of historic events. Maria Jarosz reflects on the post-World War II world and how Poland and its people have been affected by changes in politics, power, and society.

More than a memoir, the book offers keen insights into how history intersects with personal life. That is because Jarosz has spent her entire life studying people. As a reviewer of the original Polish edition noted, it is not possible to understand Polish society, its views and attitudes, and the mechanisms for managing them, without reading this work. This book spans the period from World War II through the communist era in Poland to the present day. It contains a wealth of dramatic detail, including a vivid account of how the author, who has Jewish roots, survived the Holocaust as a child.

This English language edition is updated to include descriptions of recent events. The author focuses intensely on her experiences as one of a few surviving witnesses to the horrors of wartime Poland. Her sober reflections are interspersed with light-hearted anecdotes, testifying to Jarosz's resilient sense of humoura cocktail that makes the book a captivating read.

List of Figures

From the Author

1. Marked by the Past
A Sociologist and a Witness to History
1939: War Breaks Out

2. Shut Off from Life: The od Ghetto

3. Warsaw in the 1940s: The Ghetto and the
Aryan Side
The Warsaw Ghetto
Occupied Warsaw
Szmalcownicy and Heroes

4. First Decade of Communism
Poland or France?
My Universities

5. 1956: Workers' Councils, Godzik, and
Gomuka
First Steps in Academia
Workers' Councils: The l.