Crime and Pillage. How the Germans Try to Conceal the Truth About Themselves 1939–2019, by Wojciech Polak and Sylwia Galij-Skarbińska

(For professors, college students, and interested adults.) 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 a slave laborer, or suffered fear and persecution from 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.

NOTE: The Table of Contents of Crime and Pillage is downloadable as a PDF [from this page] on the website of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (Polish: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej). Directly under the image of the cover of Crime and Pillage, you will see the Polish phrase “Pliki do pobrania” (English: Downloadable Files). To download the PDF file, click on the small PDF icon. The PDF file is 67.94 KB.