Survivors tells the harrowing story of life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation. As the epicenter of Polish resistance, Warsaw was subjected to violent persecution, the ghettoization of the city's Jewish community, the suppression of multiple uprisings, and an avalanche of restrictions that killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed countless lives. In this study into the unique brutality of wartime Warsaw, Jadwiga Biskupska traces how Nazi Germany set out to dismantle the Polish nation and state for long-term occupation by targeting its intelligentsia. She explores how myriad resistance projects emerged within the intelligentsia who were bent on maintaining national traditions and rebuilding a Polish state. In contrast to other studies on the Holocaust and Second World War, this book focuses on Polish behavior and explains who was in a position to contest the occupation or collaborate with it, while answering lingering questions and addressing controversies about the Nazi empire and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.

Winner, 2022 Heldt Prize for Best Book in Slavic/East European/Eurasian Studies, Association for Women in Slavic Studies

Honorable Mention, 2023 International Book Award, The Pilecki Institute

Winner, 2023 Choice Awards

'In this chilling portrait of the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, Biskupska uncovers how the Polish intelligentsia struggled to preserve the nation through their networks in prisons and concentration camps, clandestine schools, churches, dissident movements, and armed opposition. With compassion and clarity, she reveals the complex moral choices Poles faced as Nazi efforts to subjugate Poles evolved into a campaign of annihilation.'

Emily Greble - Vanderbilt University

'Jadwiga Biskupska's Survivors is a lively and well-informed history of German-occupied Warsaw seen from the perspective of the Polish intelligentsia. Particularly notable is the sensitive way Biskupska excavates the diverse and distinctive voices of intelligentsia members as they experienced Nazi genocidal attacks, the vicissitudes of underground resistance, and the tragic uprisings of the Warsaw ghetto in April 1943 and of the city as a whole in August 1944.'

Norman M. Naimark - Stanford University

'Following the violent fate of the Polish elites in German-occupied Warsaw, Jadwiga Biskupska offers a broad picture of Poland during the Second World War. A master of summarization, she aptly explains intricacies of the Polish past. Erudite, readable, and engaging, the book is a great gift for all history lovers, and for specialists in twentieth-century Poland.'

Piotr J. Wróbel - University of Toronto

‘Jadwiga Biskupska's meticulously researched and fluidly written book has much to offer readers, both within and outside of the field of Polish history … Scholars of the Second World War in particular will find much to enlighten them here about how the Nazis ruled those who were deemed racially unsuitable for incorporation into their New Order as anything but slaves, as well as the sort of resistance such rule provoked. In addition, historians of Poland will find that Biskupska usefully pushes the scholarship of the period beyond the rather rigid categories within which it has been confined for decades.’

Jesse Kauffman Source: H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online

‘… engaging and informative …’

Kara Irvin Source: Journal of Military History

‘Given the importance of the Holocaust to Western self-understanding, the somewhat less familiar but neighbouring story of the mass murder and survival of elites is a welcome contribution to English-language scholarship.’

Walter Schultz Source: Journal of Contemporary History

‘… the book offers more than its title promises. It is a very valuable compendium which introduces the reader to the goals and stages of the German occupation of not only Warsaw, but of the whole subjugated country, and especially to the strategies of survival and resistance adopted by the Polish political and cultural elites.’

Paweł Machcewicz Source: International Journal of Military History and Historiography

‘The book is valuable for its discussion of the many issues raised by the occupation, not through monolithic categories … but through a great diversity of viewpoints.’

Tomasz Frydel Source: Journal of Contemporary History

‘As a recapitulation of the literature and overview of Polish Warsaw in World War II, which is also brilliantly written, the study does an excellent job…’

Stephan Lehnstaedt Source: The Polish Review

‘A rich, complex study of the Warsaw intelligentsia under Nazi occupation … Biskupska’s nuanced and sensitive Survivors deserves a wide audience.’

Catherine Epstein Source: War in History