Jacek Leociak’s book about rescuing Jews in the 3rd stage of the “Historical Book of the Year” competition

This year, the competition will take place for the third time. The Oskar Halecki Award is given in two categories: “The best academic book describing the history of Poland and Poles during the Polish People’s Republic” and “The best academic book for the general public devoted to the history of Poland in the 20^th century”. Among the nominated books are: „Anatomia buntu. Kuroń, Modzelewski i komandosi” (“Anatomy of Protest. Kuroń, Modzelewski and the Commandos”) of Andrzej Friszke, „Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Polskie lata” (Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Polish Years”) of Gerhard Gnauck, „Ocaleni z Mauthausen. Relacje polskich więźniów obozów nazistowskich systemu Mauthausen-Gusen” („Saved from Mauthausen. Accounts of Polish Prisoners of the Mauthausen-Gusen System Nazi Camps”) by Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner and „Społeczeństwo kolejki. O doświadczeniach niedoboru 1945-1989” („Society Without Queues. About the Experience of Scarcity 1945-1989”) by  Małgorzata Mazurek.

Jacek Leociak is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN), director of the Holocaust Literature Research Center of IBL PAN, member of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research and editor of the annual “Holocaust Studies and Materials”. He is also a member of the team preparing the core exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. His research focuses on the forms of recording border-line experiences (in particular from the time of the Holocaust). Jacek Leociak is the author of the book “Text in the Face of Destruction. Accounts from Warsaw Ghetto Reconsidered“ and co-author – together with Barbara Engelking-Boni – of the work “The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City”. His newest book “Rescuing. Accounts of Poles and Jews” analyzes stories of Poles, who provided help to the Jews during the Second World War. Poles saving Jews are presented in this work in a complex and multi-dimensional way. The author describes various motivations of their deeds: both the human willingness to help and the greed. Jacek Leociak based his account upon rich historical sources, such as testimonies and archival documents, which enabled him to reconstruct the historical, social and psychological context of that time. He presented moral dilemmas connected with saving Jews during the war and the dramas both of the rescuing and of the rescued.