25 Odwaga i strach (polish language)

Courage and Fear is also the title of a remarkable book written by the Polish scholar and diplomat Ola Hnatiuk. Her book is a gripping account of both the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Lviv in the Second World War. The book focuses on the daily life and dire choices faced by a very special group of people in dramatic circumstances. We meet the Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian writers, artists, musicians, academics, and medical community of the city. Her book, now available in Polish and Ukrainian, is not a standard academic monograph detailing a complex and controversial topic that continues to divide historians. Detailed it is, but in a highly personal and emotionally resonant style that reflects the best literary memoirs. A very personal story is woven into the grand sweep of tragic events that the book covers. Hnatiuk’s mother was born in Lviv the very day after the Red Army occupied the city in September 1939. Her family left the city on the last convey of repatriates to post-war Poland in June 1946.