Why read If the Walls Could Speak?

Book cover of If the Walls Could Speak: Inside a Women's Prison in Communist Poland

Book description

Drawing on autobiographical writings, oral histories, interrogation protocols, and cell spy reports, If the Walls Could Speak focuses on the lives of women in prison in postwar communist Poland. Some were jailed for their alleged collaboration with the Nazis during the war, some for postwar activities in various civil as…

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked If the Walls Could Speak as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Patrice M. Dabrowski

Author

This moving book gives insightful and humane treatment to a difficult, even taboo, subject: the cell life of female prisoners during the Stalinist period. Empathetic as well as eloquent, Anna Müller relies on numerous interviews as well as archival sources to piece together the world of the prison cell. While seemingly at the mercy of the guards and interrogation officers, back in their shared cell women prisoners are shown to seize upon what agency they had and actively shape their imprisoned existence. This is a book you won’t soon forget.

From Patrice's list on the complexity of Poland and Polish history.