Offering a rare glimpse into the lives of those who lived through the German occupation of Poland s capital, this important ethnography explores how elderly residents of Warsaw recollect, narrate, and commemorate their experiences, thus showing how the cultural legacies of the occupation reveal themselves in contemporary Polish society.

The individuals who are the focus of this study, all long-time residents of the Warsaw neighborhood Zoliborz, responded to the daily deprivations and brutality of the German occupation by joining branches of the Polish underground, ultimately...