Description
Book Synopsis“Extraordinary storytelling about unfathomable horror.” — Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] worthy tribute to the extraordinary bravery of a remarkable woman.” — Publishers Weekly
In World War II's Poland, thirty year old Zofia Sterner and her husband Wacek refuse to be classified as Jews destined for extermination.
Instead, they evade the Nazis and the Soviets in several dramatic escapes and selflessly rescue many Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto and a labor camp, later becoming active participants in the Warsaw Uprising where they are taken prisoner. This retelling, captured through diaries, interviews, war crime trial testimonies, and letters, detail the Sterners' heroic rescues, escapes, and ultimate survival. A true story of hope amid horrifying tragedy, How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis illustrates how war brings out the worst and the best in people, and how true humanity and heroism of ordinary people are revealed by their willingness to risk everything and help others. This story is about being human under the most inhumane conditions.
Trade Review“The book reads like a fast-paced thriller with stories about … escapes, participation in the Warsaw Uprising and subsequent arrests… Extraordinary storytelling about unfathomable horror. At the core of it is a remarkable woman and her family who not only refused to allow the Nazis to exterminate them, but they also saved others. For readers who enjoy history, Judaic studies, and human-interest stories.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
“Dziarski debuts with a dynamic narrative … [and] renders in palpably urgent, first-person, present tense writing the remarkable story of a woman who was driven by her belief that ‘every life was precious’ to save strangers. … It’s a worthy tribute to the extraordinary bravery of a remarkable woman.”
— Publishers Weekly
“In the vast literature on the Holocaust, few memoirs are told from the point of view of the rescuers. Roman Dziarski’s reconstruction of the story of a Polish-Jewish couple under German occupation stands out for its presentation of events from the perspective of Zofia, an ethnic Pole married to her Jewish husband and member of the Polish resistance, Wacław Sterner. Under Nazi racial laws, both are to don the Star of David armband and report to the Warsaw ghetto, which they refuse, taking their chances on the so-called Aryan side. With ties to the Polish underground and the milieu of assimilated Warsaw Jewry, the couple is involved in a sort of grassroots ‘Żegota’ rescue operation that helps dozens of Jews escape the ghetto. The story, punctuated by counterintuitive twists, demonstrates the difficulty of generalizing about Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War and beyond. This creative retelling, pieced together from sources found in the family's archive by the author, a nephew of the protagonists, saves this remarkable story from oblivion.”
— Tomasz Frydel, PhD, Concordia University
“How We Outwitted and Survived the Nazis reads like a thriller. It is a page-turner. What makes it unique is that the story conveys the precarious lives of Poles under the German occupation and after liberation without whitewashing the antisemitism that existed. If, like Roman Dziarski, Poles and Jews can acknowledge the suffering of each group, perhaps these groups can transcend the argument about ‘who suffered most’ and work together to teach the history of World War II and its aftermath.”
— from the foreword by Eva Fogelman, author of Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust
“[T]here is such a confidence . . ., such a gift, such abandon of Good! I am greatly struck by it, when Zofia Sterner tells me how she led her charges out of the ghetto. . . . [D]uring all the occupation, the Sterners devoted heart and soul to the cause which they had voluntarily chosen: to save Jews, give them comfort, and to help them leave for more secure places, with passes in their pockets.”
— Marek Halter, La force du Bien (Stories of Deliverance: Speaking with Men and Women Who Rescued Jews from the Holocaust)
Table of ContentsPreface
Chapter 1: Fleeing
Chapter 2: Getting help
Chapter 3: Mob and loss
Chapter 4: Reunion and fleeing again
Chapter 5: Back with the family
Chapter 6: Evading
Chapter 7: Birth
Chapter 8: Resistance
Chapter 9: Rescues
Chapter 10: Passing and hiding
Chapter 11: Working for the enemy
Chapter 12: Blackmail
Chapter 13: Underground
Chapter 14: Uprising
Chapter 15: Prisoner
Chapter 16: Deportation
Chapter 17: Escape and freedom
Chapter 18: Return
Chapter 19: Back home
Chapter 20: Epilogue – Zosia and Edek Kosman
The main characters
Afterword
Postface
Jewish situation in Poland before WWII
Polish-Jewish relations, Polish help, and Polish atrocities on Jews in WWII
Human cost of WWII
A note on terminology
Abbreviations and glossary
Acknowledgements
References
List of Figures
Figure credits
Index
