Together and Apart in Brzezany

Book excerpt: Based on interviews with Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians who lived in the small eastern Polish town of Brzezany before, during, and after World War II, together with extensive research into the historical record and his own childhood memories, historian Shimon Redlich reconstructs the changing relationships among Brzezany's three ethnic groups. The book details the history of Brzezany from the pre-war decades when members of the three communities remember living relatively amicably "together and apart" when Brzezany was part of independent Poland, through the tensions of Soviet rule from 1939 to 1941 and the trauma of the Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944, to the recapture of the town by the Red Army in 1945. Each chronological chapter is introduced by Redlich's recollections, continues with an examination of the events as documented in local sources, and concludes with the observations of his interviewees. Historical and contemporary photographs of Brzezany and its inhabitants add immediacy to this fascinating excursion into history brought to life by those who lived through it, showing how events are remembered and interpreted often in very different ways.