Wearing the Letter P by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab

Author : Sophie Hodorowicz Knab
Title : Wearing the Letter P
Published : 2016
Publisher : Hippocrene Books
Pages : 256
Genre Non-Fiction

      As mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters, female Polish forced laborers faced a unique set of challenges and often unspeakable conditions because of their gender. Required to sew a large letter "P" onto their jackets, thousands of women, some as young as age 12, were taken from their homes in Poland and forced to work for the Reich for months and years on end. In this important contribution to World War II history, Knab explains how it all happened, from the beginning of occupation in Poland to liberation: the roundups; the horrors of transit camps; the living and working conditions of Polish women in agriculture and industry; and the anguish of sexual exploitation and forced abortions -- all under the constant threat of concentration camps. Knab draws from any detailed portrait of the lives of female Polish laborers, finally giving these women a voice and bringing to light to the atrocities that they endured.

     There is a great deal of information out there about what took place during world war two. We think we have everything covered. But there are still part of these tragic events that go unnoticed outside of there countries of origin. For most people we accept that the Nazi invasion of Poland was a pretty horrific set of events. But that is where most of our knowledge ends. We learn about what took place in camps like Auschwitz but stop short of looking at the people who lived under Nazi rule in their own countries. This is where this author steps up to the plate so to speak. Looking into her own families' past she has been able to give us a much better insight into what it was like for the women of Poland Under Nazi rule. 

     When I started out with this book I like many others, thought I had a rough idea of what it must have been like. But as I delved deeper into it I started to become very aware that I really didn't have a clue as to just how horrific it was for these women. It is without a doubt a difficult book to spend time with. But this is hardly a surprise after all the Nazis planned to use Poland as a source for slave labor until they where no longer required and then much like the jews wipe them of the face of the planet. For me at least I felt the use of witness testimonies added a great deal to how I interacted with the book. It is most definitely one thing to read about such events and a completely different one to read the words of those who were there. In learning about so many different women's lives during this period it gave me a much wider understanding of just how bad things got. I am left in not only wonder as to just how the managed to make it through these years but a great admiration their sheer force of will. 

     Rather than throw all this information at you in one giant lump the author chose to break each chapter down into more focused topics giving a bite-size pieces for us to contemplate all the while backing it up with different women's accounts as to what she went through. It also flows in a chronological order starting with the invasion and ending with what was supposed to be libration and a return to home and the lives they had left. I felt her style worked really well here as the book moved me around to each of the topics she wished to cover. Whilst each chapter may seem small it definitely packs a punch and gets across the strong message which the author intended. It is hard to imagine now but having hindsight is a wonderful thing. For many it must at first have seemed in the early days of occupation that the jobs being offered were to be a lifeline, a way of supporting those they cared for in hard times in the hopes of the better ones to come. but what this book does is t show us all the harsh truths of what took place. The stories they couldn't or wouldn't want to tell others.  Even now there is a great deal of stigma associated with what happened to these women.  

      This is a book that has greatly expanded my understanding of events that took place so long ago yet still have the power to change how we see the world. Anyone who reads this can see for themselves that these women were not willing participants in the Nazi machine. They suffered and fought their way through till the bitter end, only to be left with a feeling of shame that for a great many never left them.  I deeply suspect the if not for her own family's connection this is a book that may never have been written. It is, however, an important one and I can only thank the author spending a great deal of time in pulling all these stories together which otherwise would have been lost to time.