Publication(s): Two new book reviews

The latest issue of The Polish Review features two book reviews by yours truly.

I wrote reviews of Malte Rolf's Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1915 and of Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabkowski's edited volume Night without End. Both of these are English translations of books that appeared in German and Polish respectively. Night without End caused a lot of controversy in Poland over its highlighting the role of Poles in the Holocaust in rural areas. Though I'm certainly more on the side of these researchers than on their critics, I still have some issues with the way it was presented at times.

From my review of Night without End:

Each of the authors adds copious examples of Poles actively taking part in the killing, and as Grabowski and Engelking claim, “a large majority of Jewish fugitives died at the hands of Poles or were murdered with their participation” (p. xxvii).

With such a sensitive and complex topic, the wording is sometimes ham-handed. Take the above example. There is a huge gap between committing murder and being an accomplice to murder, but the editors lump them together. In Grabowski’s contribution, he writes of “mass murder committed first by Germans and later by Poles” (p. 147). Did Poles commit mass murder? Or did they participate in a German program of mass murder? In any case, the wording is not careful enough.

There are also a number of unsubstantiated interpretive claims that cross the line into opining. The editors write, “Many sat by idly as Jews were murdered before their eyes, their idleness indicating something more than just passivity and indifference” (p. xix). Based on what, one might ask? Engelking writes in her chapter, “There was no shortage of malice...” (p. 23). Among whom, malice for whom? Many more examples abound in Grabowski’s chapter, such as his personal assessments of various figures’ intentions that do not find a basis in the sources (pp. 150–153). The Polish version included this editorializing, and it was left in the translation.