Academic Studies Press Warsaw is My Country: The Story of Krystyna Bierzynska, 1928-1945 (Jews of Poland)

This story of Krystyna Bierzyńska, an acculturated Polish Jew, explores how she survived the Holocaust thanks to the efforts of her Jewish and surrogate Christian families and served in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Bierzyńska's is a Warsaw story that demonstrates how, in urban interwar Poland, acculturated Jews at last dared to believe that they qualified as Polish patriots. Review "This is a fascinating read as well as an outstanding addition to syllabi for courses in history, gender, identity, and memory studies, making also a notable contribution to the theme of 'reading and writing cities, ' as Bierzyńska's story situates the city of Warsaw in its very center. ... Apart from being a needed monument to the much ignored female heroism in Poland's war struggles, the book testifies to the remarkable richness and complexities of Polish Jews' double identities, rendering impossible any simplistic affinity towards one ethnic group over the other. As such, the book should be considered a 'must have' for any American or European library." --Elwira M. Grossman, University of Glasgow, Slavic and East European Journal Vol. 62.3--Elwira M. Grossman "Slavic and East European Journal" "[A] shining example of what can result when difficult and deeply troubling personal histories are placed into the hands of skillful and careful storytellers. ... A captivating and moving coming of age story, Warsaw Is My Country traces the intersections of Polish and Jewish histories of the Second World War through the eyes of a young, real life heroine." --Michal Wilczewski, H-Poland "Krystyna Bierzynska is a Holocaust survivor par excellence. Born in Warsaw in 1928, the daughter of assimilated Polish Jews who perished during the six-year German occupation of Poland, she managed to leave the Polish capital as Jews were being herded into the doomed Nazi ghetto. In 1944, as a member of the underground Home Army, she participated in the failed Warsaw rebellion against the Germans. Five years ago, on the 70th anniversary of that revolt, she agreed to be interviewed by Beth Holmgren, a professor of Slavic Studies at Duke University. Holmgren's book, Warsaw Is My Country: The Story of Krystyna Bierzynska, 1928-1945 (Academic Studies Press), is wide-ranging in scope and sometimes deeply emotional." --Sheldon Kirshner, The Times of Israel About the Author Beth Holmgren is Professor of Slavic Studies at Duke University. Her recent books include Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America (2012) and Transgressive Women in Modern Russian and East European Cultures, co-ed. Yana Hashamova & Mark Lipovetsky (2016). Her current research examines the role of popular entertainment and the experience of its primarily Jewish performers in the Anders Army (1942-1946).