Hempel, Andrew. Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2000

ISBN 0-7818-0758-1
117 pages

Photos; Bibliography; Index

The first of these three is a quite small volume, measuring only five inches by seven and a quarter inches and amounting to only 117 pages. Heavily illustrated with photographs on almost every page, the publisher bills Poland in World War II as "a brief history of the Polish Forces...'brief being the key word'..." It includes the following chapters:

Historical Background
Defense of Poland
Continued Struggle for Poland Abroad
Narvik
Defense of France
The Polish Air Force in Great Britain
Jews under German Occupation
German Terror and the Polish Underground State
Soviet Occupation and the Polish Army in the Soviet Union
Italian Campaign
Polish Armed Forces and the Soviet Union
Normandy, Belgium, Holland, and Wilhelmshaven
Arnhem
The Warsaw Uprising

Given the brevity of Poland in World War II, this can qualify only as a primer, but it does quite well at that. The photographs include some interesting shots and portraits of relatively obscure figures, but tend to be rather dark and not nearly so crisp as in For Your Freedom and Ours.

Brodniewicz-Stawicki, Margaret. For Your Freedom and Ours: The Polish Armed Forces in the Second World War. St. Catherines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Limited, 1999

ISBN 1-55125-035-7
264 pages

Acknowledgments; Foreword; maps; photos; Bibliography; Index

Given that Poland in World War II is really about the Polish armed forces, it proves to be similar in many ways to For Your Freedom and Ours -- subtitled "The Polish Armed Forces in the Second World War" -- but the latter is quite a bit larger at ten and a quarter inches by ten and three-quarters inches and 264 pages. Like Hempel, Brodniewicz-Stawicki offers many photographs. The difference is that in the former, the photos merely accompany and illustrate the text; here, they must carry the book because -- aside from captions and wartime quotations -- there is very little narrative text. Nevertheless, the chapters look very familiar, although not quite so chronological:

Poland
   German Extermination Camps
   Ghetto Uprising
   The Warsaw Uprising
Special Service and Intelligence
France 1939-1940
Norway
France 1944-1945
Africa
Great Britain
   Polish Air Force
   Battle of Britain
   Polish Navy
Russia
   Katyn
   Under Soviet Command
Middle East
   Women Soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps
   Polish Children in Exile
Italy
   Battle of Monte Cassino
Low Countries
   Germany

While Hempel provides more text and more information, the photographs in For Your Freedom and Ours are larger, sharper, and much more striking. Similar as the books are, some readers will prefer the more visual volume while others will prefer the one with more emphasis on the written word.

Piotrowski, Tadeusz. Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign against the Poles during World War II. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc, 2000

ISBN 0-7864-0773-5
319 pages

Preface; Introduction; maps; tables; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: Ukrainian Victims by County; Three Stories from Eastern Galicia; Excerpts from Documents; Chronology; Mutual Declaration of the Presidents of the Republic of Poland and Ukraine Regarding Understanding and Reconciliation

While Poland in World War II is heavily illustrated and For Your Freedom and Ours contains almost nothing but photos, Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn has no pictures at all. It offers instead an unremittingly horrible tale of ethnic cleansing in a single province of Poland where Ukrainian nationalists undertook a bloody campaign against Polish men, women, and children.

Not a history of the OUN, OUN-A, OUN-B UPA/SKV/SB, and OUN-M alphabet-soup of Ukrainian nationalist organizations, this is a volume of personal recollections. The author's twenty-page Introduction explains the history of Wolyn province, the mixed nature of the population, the explosive political situation, and the triggering of the bloodbath. The bulk of the book gives a county-by-county review of the purge. Each chapter includes brief notes about the population of the county and its political environment, then offers numerous first-hand accounts from survivors who tell of the atrocities they observed and experienced.

Although most of the accounts recall Ukrainians murdering Poles, in almost every case there are also instances of Poles who were sheltered and saved by their Ukrainian neighbors, sometimes at the cost of their own lives.

A sobering and sorrowful document. Also includes a very useful and detailed chronology of the larger political issues and military events to put these recollections into context.

All three titles are available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from the respective publisher.

Thanks to the publishers for providing these review copies.