Table of Contents - PDF
Book description:
Crime and Pillage presents a reality from Poland’s past that still painfully reverberates today, 80 years after it finished occurring – the German occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. Every Pole seems to have a story – a grandparent, aunt, or uncle that was murdered, became an slave laborer, or suffered fear and persecution form the Germans. In addition, despite Poland’s continual growth since the fall of communism, the effects of Germany’s literal economic disembowelment of Poland during the occupation continues to be felt today in terms of opportunity lost from destroyed economic potential.
This reality is alive in Poland but unknown and unfelt in Germany, the perpetrator. Professors Wojciech Polak and Sylwia Galij-Skarbińska document, in very readable style, first what occurred during the German occupation of Poland, then how Germany purposely conducted a policy of ignoring, downplaying and not informing its citizens of this period in German history, and finally, how Germany continues to treat Poland, not as a neighbor and partner, but as a client state, an object of German economic hegemony.
In the words of the authors, the purpose of this book is to create a platform of truth on which to build healthy relations between Germany and Poland – relations based on candor and respect.