Stanisław Aronson’s happy childhood in an affluent, assimilated family in Łódź ended when the Nazis and the Soviets invaded Poland in September 1939. He experienced occupation under both regimes, lost those he loved, and narrowly escaped death in Treblinka at the age of seventeen. Yet his war was only beginning. He joined the Polish Underground, served in an elite detachment that eliminated collaborators and Gestapo informers, and fought and was wounded on the front lines in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Under no illusions about the future of Poland following liberation by the Soviets, he embarked on an illegal odyssey that took him first to the Polish forces based in Italy, and then to Israel, where he made a new home for himself and served in all the country’s major wars. Since 1988, he has been able to visit Poland again, meet with other survivors of his Home Army unit, and make friends with their children and grandchildren. He has also played an active role in commemorating the wartime past. Journalist Patrycja Bukalska carried out the extensive interviews with Stanisław Aronson that served as the basis for this book. The original version was shortlisted for an award in the competition for Best Historical Book of the Year, organized by the Institute for National Remembrance, Polish Television, and Polish Radio.
