Book Review Of The Week - In The Shadow of the Polish Eagle

In the Shadow of the Polish Eagle


The Poles, the Holocaust and beyond by Leo Cooper

	The behaviour of many Poles towards the Jewish population during the Nazi occupation of Poland has always been a controversial issue. Although the Poles are supposed not to have collaborated with the invaders, there is evidence to show that in respect of the Jewish population, the behaviour of many Poles, including members of the underground, was far from examplary. Poland is also the only European country where Jews were being murdered after the war and where strong anti-Semitic tendencies are still present. This book analyses this question in a historical context and attempts to offer an explanation of the phenomenon of Polish anti-Semitism during and after the war. The work is based on recently uncovered documents as well as on personal accounts of witnesses to events during the war. Leo Cooper was Senior Research Associate at the Contemporary Europe Research Centre and Russian and Euro-Asian Studies Centre, both at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Power and Politics in the Soviet Union, Soviet Reforms and Beyond, Russia and the World, The Political Economy of Soviet Military Power, and Stakhanovites - and Others: the Story of a Worker in the Soviet Union 1939-1946.