Hamilton Books
Pages: 320
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7618-7166-8 • Paperback • November 2019 • $40.99 • (£32.00)
978-0-7618-7167-5 • eBook • November 2019 • $38.50 • (£30.00)
Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz is professor emeritus of political science, University of Kansas.
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations and Terms
Editor’s Introduction
Introduction
Chapter 1: Christians and Jews in Poland: Cohabitation and Conflict
Chapter 2: The Invasion and Occupation of Poland
Chapter 3: The Extermination of Polish Jews
Chapter 4: The Polish Underground
Chapter 5: Help from Individuals and Legal and Resistance Organizations
Chapter 6: Żegota: The Council to Aid Jews
Chapter 7: Aid from Abroad
Chapter 8: Criminals, Collaborators, and Antisemites
Conclusions
Bibliography
About the Author
Dance with Death is an ambitious work that attempts to address the totality of the Final Solution within Nazi-occupied Poland during WW II. . . Piekalkiewicz (emer., Univ. of Kansas) was a young member of a Home Army unit at the time and took an active role in opposing the Nazis. He offers valuable insights into its successful and failed operations and critiques its actions against the Nazis, drawing analogies with asymmetrical postwar conflicts. He also tackles the controversies and complexities of relations between Polish Gentiles and Polish Jews prior to and during the war, addressing anti-Semitism and efforts to rescue Polish Jews. The narrative is interspersed with excerpts from Piekalkiewicz’s unpublished recollections that add a personal touch and tremendous understanding to the account. . . a worthwhile read. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. All levels.
— CHOICE
This book is an important and unique historical document. Over 75 years have passed since the Holocaust and the terrors visited by Nazi Germany on many European countries. And yet this history continues to be the subject of research, debate and controversy. One particularly delicate issue is whether non-Jews did all they could to help Jews during WWII. In his book, Prof. Jarek Piekałkiewicz analyzes this issue in detail as it relates to Poland—the country which experienced the harshest German occupation and was slated for eventual incorporation into the German Reich. He brings together—in a way never done before—all the different factors that influenced the capacity of Poles to save Jews and then documents the efforts made to save them despite many impediments.— Frederic J. Fleron Jr., University at Buffalo