12 Best Books About Poland in WWII: Historical Fiction & Nonfiction

This list of the 12 best books about Poland during WWII tell the human cost of war and give us a glimpse at what life was like in Poland in the 1940’s under German occupation. These books are both World War Two historical fiction and nonfiction, and cover a variety of experiences that the people of Poland in places like Warsaw and Krakow had during the Third Reich’s regime.

Rescued from the Ashes: The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto by Leokadia Schmidt

This is an incredible, moving story comes to us from the diaries kept by Leokadia Schmidt about how she, along with her husband and 5 month old baby escaped the Warsaw Ghetto by going into hiding on the “Aryan” side of town. It details life during the uprising, and is one of the most heartbreaking stories I’ve read on what life was like in Warsaw during the German occupation, and the lengths that desperate families would go to stay safe. Leokadia kept writing, with no intention of her detailed account ever being published, but we are so lucky to get the opportunity to read her experiences from her own perspective as they happened.

Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally

Schindler’s List is so much a classic, such a well known true story that I almost didn’t include it in the list. However, if you haven’t read it, it is an absolute must. This is the story of how a German factory director in Krakow came to save more Jewish people from the concentration camps than any other single person during World War II. It’s a brilliant narrative that uses the actual testimony of those he saved to tell the tale of one man’s courage and dedication to being a good human right under the nose of the most evil regime.

Related: Visiting Schindler’s Factory In Krakow, Poland

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

This is the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s List child, and one of the youngest children to escape with his help. Leon Leyson was only 10 when his family was forced into the Krakow ghetto and with incredible determination and luck, he found himself on the receiving end of Schindler’s attempt to smuggle him to safety. It’s a story of the innocence of one boy, and the generosity that saved the lives of his mother, father and two out of his four siblings from certain death at Auschwitz.

Irena’s Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar J. Mazzeo

This true story of the “female Oskar Schindler” is about a young social worker who was given access to the Warsaw getto to work as a public health employee. Soon she realized the fate that was waiting for the Jewish families being kept in the Ghettos, and she began to take unbelievable risks to smuggle 2,500 children out of the ghetto and past the Nazis to safety, securing that they would be spared the deportation and death the Nazis were carrying out. Irena did something even more courageous and kept a secret list of all of the true identities of the children- an act that would have gotten her shot on the spot had anyone discovered it. With the hopes of reuniting the children with their families after the war, she eventually came to know less than 10% of their parents survived. This book is a page turner, as you’ll find yourself both rooting for Irena and heartbroken for her, her community, and the children they’re trying to get to safety.

We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

One of my favorite WWII stories of all time, this is inspired by an incredible true story of one Jewish family that gets separated at the start of WWII, and how each of them are determined to survive, and to reunite. It’s an amazing book, and the fact that it’s a true story makes it just such a captivating novel that’s about ingenuity, strength and hope – even when it seems there should be none.

This book is also featured in our list of historical fiction books about WWII because it deserves a double mention.

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

In German occupied Warsaw, Elzbieta becomes increasingly uneasy with seeing the brutality her Jewish neighbors are experiencing right in front of her. Inspired by the true story of this female hero, this novel takes us from Nazi occupation to the threat of a communist regime, and how Elzbieta fights back by smuggling children out. It’s a moving story that follows the steps Elzbieta takes to reclaim all that had been taken from her community.

My Mother’s Secret by J.L. Witterick

Hiding any Jewish person’s was a crime punishable by death in Poland once it was occupied by the Nazis. In this true story, mother and daughter provide shelter to Jewish families and a German solider defector in their small home, all without them knowing about each other. Told from four different perspectives, it’s a tale of kindness, humanity, and the lengths regular people were willing to go to protect another life.

Lalechka by Amira Keidar

When Jacob and Zippa realized that everyone in the Polish ghetto they had been forced to live in were being systematically executed, they knew that they needed to find a way to save their daughter. Based on a true family and written from interviews, documents and letters, we follow the story of how Lalechka was smuggled out of the ghetto and put into the care of Zippa’s friends, Irena and Sophia. This is an incredible story, made even more heartwrenching wrenching because of the life she went onto live. While this is a story about the atrocities committed during WWII, this is mostly a story of friendship between three women, and how that kind of deep love for another always prevails.

Surviving The Forest by Adiva Geffen

When World War II breaks out it brings a family’s simple, happy way of life to an end, and forces them out of their home and into the ghetto. But soon they realize that the Gestapo is taking their Jewish friends and neighbors out of the ghetto on trucks every night. They know if they are to save their family, they’ll need to make difficult, and dangerous choices. Based on a true story of a survivor, the family flees into the dark forest, with nothing with them except for the will to make it out of the horrible war alive.

Eli’s Promise by Ronald H. Balson

This well researched WWII historical fiction spans three eras, and depicts a “fixer” in a Polish town and his betrayal of a Jewish family, and then the search for justice that came 25 years later. This book shows us the human cost that came with this war and is a page turner in that you become immersed in Eli’s story and compelled to know what happens next in the lives of what so many experienced at the hands of the Third Reich.

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Battalion

Written by the granddaughter of a survivor, this book about the plight of Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto and the absolute heroism the exhibited in their resistance efforts against the Nazis. Working from the inside, these women, who had seen their family members murdered and their communities torn to shreds, used whatever means necessary to actively resist the terror that was being unleashed on the Poland Jewish citizens. This book is a must read to get the full scope of the Jewish experience, and to understand all of the ways that the resistance fought back.

If I Survive by Barbara Miller

This account is of a now 100 year old Lena Goldstein, and her experiences as a young Jewish woman hiding and actively participating in Warsaw’s resistance. When she realizes her family is lost forever after being taken to Treblinka, she vows to do what she can, figuring no one is around anymore to care if she lives or dies. She ends up being a part of the Warsaw Uprising and helping to make Molotov cocktails. It’s a heartbreaking story by one of the last living eye witnesses to these events, and a reminder to never give up, even when all hope looks to be lost.

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