Read of the Month (Dec 2020)

This month's #ReadoftheMonth is for me a difficult read.
Nevertheless I feel it is an important for me to finish.

It gives a well researched factual account of an event my father was personally involved in;

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

And so the book is simply 

Warsaw 1944
(Hitler, Himmler and the Warsaw Uprising)
by

Alexandra Richie

My father did not speak in any detail about this period of his life.
He did on occasion mention it.
This was to explain his appearance;
scared face and hands due to burns.

Unfortunately I was only aware of the most rudimentary facts;

• the population of the city collaborated to fight against the Germans
• it was brutally repressed by the Nazis
• the Russians then invaded the city and established a communist regime

It was not until I was older and after my father had died that I learnt more.

This was in part due to Rita Cosby.

Her father too was a participant in the Warsaw uprising.
This was when he and my father met and subsequently became good friends.

So when Rita wrote a book about her father large chunks of it were about my father.

It is a very different book from the #ReadoftheMonth.
It is a personal emotional account 
as opposed to being
a carefully researched factual account.

This war in Eastern Europe, especially involving the Russians,
is little known in the UK.
It is rarely mentioned; certainly not the details.
Maybe now is the time to put the record straight.

This book is a start.

For me it is informative but poignant.
But a must read