Polish Greatness Book Reviews

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BOOK REVIEWS

Polish Greatness.com presents a new feature that is sure to please enthusiasts of World War II history, in
particular Polish history. Reviews of non-fiction books will be posted here and cover a variety of topics about
WWII and its aftermath. Memoirs and biographies will also be included.. Polish Greatness.com is proud to
feature new authors whose work focuses on World War II and Poland, including well-known authors. You
may suggest books for review but they must have already been published.(in English).

POLISH LITERATI NEWS

May 2011
The Warsaw International Book Fair takes
place throughout the month of May. It is
an annual event that has a long history in
Poland. Each year it takes center stage in
the beautiful city of Warsaw at the Palace
of Culture. It is no exaggeration to say
that it is one of the biggest book fairs in
Europe.

INSTYTUT KSIASZK
THE BOOK INSTITUTE

A gem of a website devoted entirely to
Polish Fiction. A wealth of information
about Books, Authors, Reviews and
important events. Generous selection of
excerpts to read and savour! If you love
fiction and Poland, you must make a point
of visiting The Book Institute. (Site is
translated to Polish, Russian, German,
and Hebrew)

FOUND IN TRANSLATION Awards
were established in 2007 by the Polish
Book Institute in Krakow, the Polish
Cultural Institute in London, the Polish
Cultural Institute in New York, and W.A.B.
Publishers in Warsaw,and is given
annually to the translator(s) of the best
translation of a work of Polish literature
into English published as a book in the
preceding calendar year. The winner of
the Found in Translation Award receives
a three-month residency in Krakow, with
lodging, a stipend in the amount of 2,000
PLN monthly, and an airline ticket to and
from Krakow funded by the Polish Book
Institute and a financial award of 10,000
PLN funded by the W.A.B. Publishing
House.

POINT OF INTEREST

There are over 28,000 registered
publishers in Poland. Two hundred of
them have a 98% share in the market.

Edition: March 27, 2011

2011 The 100th Anniversary of Poland's Greatest Poet/Writer Czesław Miłosz



		1911-2004

	Awarded Nobel Prize 1980

A Song On the End of the World
by Czeslaw Milosz
translated by Anthony Milosz

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.

You Tube Video
Nobel Prize Winning, Polish poet,
Czeslaw Milosz, reads his poem "
A Song On the End of the World"
Music New Orders "Blue Monday".
Mix by: Len Sousa

Video uploaded by "lastdiplomat"
(00:02:23m)

Nobel Prize Winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz
reads his poem, " A Song On the End of the World"
Music: New Orders, "Blue Monday" Mix: Len Sousa

visit: Polish Cultural Institute

LOST BETWEEN WORLDS
by
EDWARD HERZBAUM

CLICK HERE

At long last, a book about WWII tanks presented in
beautifully illustrated full-color artwork and
photographs.

In addition to over 200 photographs there are
specifications regarding each model, unit
markings and camoflage techniques. (A handy
reference guide for military modeler hobbyists!)

Among the allied tanks featured in this stunning
book are variants of the M4 Sherman, Stuart,
Churchill, Matilda, as well as matlaying
engineering and mine clearing versions. There
are also half-trucks, regular trucks and
amphibious vehicles.

A virtual Treasure Trove for WWII
enthusiasts!

1940 to 1941 was the Season of the Blitz during which German bombs
rained down on England from St. Paul's Cathedral to the East End and
the midlands as Hitler tried to bludgeon the Brits into submission.
This terrifying and darkest period of British history is brought to life with
stunning archival photographs as well as newspaper accounts, diaries,
and interviews with the survivors. The Blitz is often spoken about today but
impossible for us to really comprehend unless we read this book and see
the devastation brought upon England.

"Divided into several sections, each covering a specific place and time period,
we now get to see what the blitz was like and how it changed the face of the
towns it affected and the lives of the people involved ... A superb book with
clear and crisp images shown in landscape format it is an excellent chronicle
of this period of British history."
- Scott Van Aken, Modeling Madness (November 2010)

TOP TEN BOOKS IN POLAND

1. No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe,
1939–1945, by Norman Davies

2. Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment, edited
by Anna M. Cienciala, Natalia S. Lebedeva,
and Wojciech Materski

3. Who Will Write Our History? Rediscovering
a Hidden Archive From the Warsaw Ghetto
by Samuel D. Kassow

4. Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts
From the Warsaw Ghetto, by Michal
Grynberg, translated by Philip Boehm

5. The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of
One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939–1945,
by Wladyslaw Szpilman

6. Ghettostadt: Lodz and the Making of a Nazi
City, by Gordon J. Horwitz

7. Collected Poems, by Czeslaw Milosz

8. Auschwitz, by Deborah Dwork and Robert
Jan Van Pelt

9. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and
Gentlemen, by Tadeusz Borowski,
translated by Barbara Vedder

10. Ashes and Diamonds,
by Jerzy Andrzejewski

source: Newsweek August 31, 2009

During World War II, Poland was the fourth largest ally. Despite her great sacrifices for the Allied war
effort, Churchill and Roosevelt betrayed Poland into the hands of Stalin's treachery at the Yalta
Conference. The Allies hailed the Conference as a great success, and it was met with public
euphoria in the West as a sign of international peace to come. But peace came at a very high cost.
The "Big Three" conspired to maintain secrecy of their true agenda. Poland, a faithful Ally, was
doomed to languish for decades behind the Iron Curtain. The world still does not know the truth. This
book reveals the facts about Poland in World War II, the battles waged by Polish Forces, and the
courage of a people betrayed and abandoned by the West. "No Greater Ally" is a must-read.
It should be compulsory reading for all history students. As a matter of fact, I highly recommend it
to Western historians and journalists as well!.

Review by Frederick Bourcher
Armorama.com

LINK TO BOOK REVIEW

"I hadn’t realised, before reading this outstanding book, just
how crucial the Polish contribution to our victory actually
was. If it hadn’t been for their pilots, for instance, we might
well have lost the Battle of Britain: on some days, Fighter
Command could scramble only 350 pilots, of which 100 were
Poles..." -Henry Coningsby, Waterstones (July 2009)

"No Greater Ally is an absolutely crucial contribution to the
history of the Second World War. Anybody who seeks to
understand the dynamics of betrayal and resistance as they
apply to this period, in Poland, in Europe, must read this book."
-Alan Furst, auhor of The Polish Soldier