“1945 was a year of contradictions and chaos. It had everything: Great postwar hope and the bitterness of the peace. Joy that we have survived, amid mass exhumations. Heroic rebuilding but also looting and corruption. Violence against Poles and by Poles against ‘the others’. The complexity of this period has been caught to perfection by Magdalena Grzebałkowska, who has presented that year from the perspective of ordinary people. Does this reportage come from the heart of darkness or the battlefield? Not only. It is also a story about returning to life.” —Marcin Zaremba, University of Warsaw (translated from the Polish)
“Magdalena Grzebalkowska’s Poland 1945: War and Peace, is a remarkable book, brilliantly translated into English.” —Warbird
“The author spoke to those who witnessed the war’s aftermath to create a moving, astonishing picture of a traumatized society seeking to find hope after unprecedented violence in a complex, constantly changing environment. An important work to understand Polish society immediately after the war. Impeccably researched.” —CHOICE