Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945

From Publishers Weekly
This amazing and moving study sheds new light on details of the Holocaust that have up until now not been examined. Under the German occupation, "ninety-eight percent of the Jewish population of Warsaw"-480,000 Jews-perished in WWII. But while the conditions of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto and its insurrection have been detailed numerous times, this study focuses on a new area of scholarship: Jews who evaded detection or fled the ghetto. Using diaries, witness testimony, and quantitative analysis (in which he tries to ascertain the precise numbers of people in the various groups he is writing about) Paulson draws a vibrant portrait of the complexity of Warsaw life, and especially of what he calls the "secret city," a collection of 28,000 Jews not confined to the ghetto, "together with the many non-Jews who helped hide them, and the criminal element that ceaselessly hunted them." Detailing a wealth of incident-from Jews involved in complex networks of survival to those who passed for non-Jewish but were sent to work camps for being Polish-the author argues that both Jewish and non-Jewish life in Warsaw was far more complicated than has been thought. Paulson, a fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, explains that this material was not examined earlier because of a "stigma attached to flight" and a valorization of resistance, such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. While this is more a scholarly than popular account, it is an important and fascinating analysis that calls for serious thought and reevaluation of Holocaust studies. 16 illus. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Guillaume de Syon, History Teacher, November 2004
a model of clarity for the handling of so intricate a topic

Gabriel Finder, East European Politics and Societies, May 2004
a compelling portrait of Jews in hiding ... bestowing dignity on this specific response to Nazi persecution.

Tim Cole, IHR Online Reviews, April 2004
a model of studying the relatively neglected topic of evasion during the Holocaust ... a passionate call for historical engagement

Anita Shelton, History: Review of New Books, 9/22/2003
impresses with its careful scholarship and restrained presentation of [some] controversial ... propositions ...[tells] a very moving and important story

Shimon Redlich, American Historical Review, April 2004
diversified sources and convincing methods ... quite novel approach ... a most significant addition to the immense Holocaust literature.

Guillaume de Syon, History Teacher, November 2004
a model of clarity for the handling of so intricate a topic

Book Description
Though the Nazis forced most of Warsaw's Jews into the city's infamous ghetto during World War II, some 28,000 Jews either hid and never entered the Warsaw Ghetto or escaped from it. This book-the first detailed treatment of Jewish escape and hiding during the Holocaust-tells the dramatic story of the hidden Jews of Warsaw. Gunnar S. Paulsson shows that after the 1942 deportations nearly a quarter of the ghetto's remaining Jews managed to escape. Once in hiding, connected by elaborate networks of which Poles, Germans, and the Jews themselves were largely unaware, they formed what can aptly be called a secret city. Paulsson challenges many established assumptions. He shows that despite appalling difficulties and dangers, many of these Jews survived; that the much-reviled German, Polish, and Jewish policemen, as well as Jewish converts and their families, were key in helping Jews escape; that though many more Poles helped than harmed the Jews, most stayed neutral; and that escape and hiding happened spontaneously, without much help from either the Polish or the Jewish underground. He suggests that the Jewish leadership was wrong to dismiss the possibility of escape, staking everything on a hopeless uprising. Paulsson's engrossing book offers a new perspective on Jewish honor and Holocaust history.

From the Publisher
Winner of the 1998 Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History (for "an outstanding unpublished work in one of the fields of interest of the Wiener Library. These include Central Europe and Jewish history in the 20th century, the Second World War, fascism and totalitarianism, political violence, racism, etc."). Also winner of the 2004 Polish Studies Association / Orbis Prize (for "the best first book in English on any aspect of Polish affairs published between 2002 and 2004")

From the Back Cover
"For many of us in this field it is always hard to imagine something new. Paulsson manages to break new ground, however, and offers an intelligent, fresh analysis." -Michael Marrus

About the Author
Gunnar S. (Steve) Paulsson holds a D.Phil in Modern History from Oxford University. A Commonwealth Scholar, he has been the senior historian of the Holocaust Exhibition Project Office at the Imperial War Museum in London, Koerner visiting fellow and lecturer at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and Pearl Resnick fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor.


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This amazing and moving study sheds new light on details of the Holocaust that have up until now not been examined. Under the German occupation, "ninety-eight percent of the Jewish population of Warsaw"-480,000 Jews-perished in WWII. But while the conditions of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto and its insurrection have been detailed numerous times, this study focuses on a new area of scholarship: Jews who evaded detection or fled the ghetto. Using diaries, witness testimony, and quantitative analysis (in which he tries to ascertain the precise numbers of people in the various groups he is writing about) Paulson draws a vibrant portrait of the complexity of Warsaw life, and especially of what he calls the "secret city," a collection of 28,000 Jews not confined to the ghetto, "together with the many non-Jews who helped hide them, and the criminal element that ceaselessly hunted them." Detailing a wealth of incident-from Jews involved in complex networks of survival to those who passed for non-Jewish but were sent to work camps for being Polish-the author argues that both Jewish and non-Jewish life in Warsaw was far more complicated than has been thought. Paulson, a fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, explains that this material was not examined earlier because of a "stigma attached to flight" and a valorization of resistance, such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. While this is more a scholarly than popular account, it is an important and fascinating analysis that calls for serious thought and reevaluation of Holocaust studies. 16 illus. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.


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