Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski

[Diane]

Rating: 4 Stars
Read: December 2016

Ashes & Diamonds takes place in Poland during the end of WWII. The country is in a transition between the horrors of war and an uncertain future involving communism. There are many characters whose lives are all interconnected. Many of these characters meet at a party for the mayor at the Metropole Hotel. The reader listens in on many snippets of conversation among the characters. You can feel the different emotions of the characters, many of whom have lost loved ones through war, concentration camps, or the Warsaw Uprising. We also see how war can change people's behavior for good or for bad.

Great little gem of a book. Definitely worthy of its place on the list. A subtitled movie was made from this book in the late 50's. I would love to see it.

[Gail]

After having read The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman, I decided to stay in Poland and went on to read this short but powerful look at Poland right at the very end of WWII. The Polish people very much wanted to have a country of their own but the various forces at play in 1944 meant that no one knew exactly what that might look like. The Germans burned Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising during that summer while the Russians sat outside the city limits waiting for the Germans to wipe out the Polish leadership. Stalin wanted Poland for himself. Many of the Nationalists that were for an independent Poland were remnants of Fascist groups, many of the Communists believed that the Soviets would be like a big brother and help them, while others believed that the fundamental Russian character would outweigh any form of government and that the Russians had come to conquer not to help, just as they had done for the last 500 years. Almost all the men had either been killed, injured or had been in some form of labor camp or concentration camp. There was plenty of work but few people wanting jobs as everyone waited for the war to end and for the transition to start, but no one knew what that transition would bring.
The author collects a handful of people to illuminate the conditions and challenges of the time and puts them together for only a few days. Some know each other and some do not, but the reader gets to see how their motivations and actions impact other characters. I came to care about the outcomes of our character's activities, would Szretter get punished? Would Kossecki get caught? Would Andrew, or Alek or Michael get away? All the characters are compromised in some way.
Themes investigated included how people change under different circumstances, with honorable men becoming monsters in the camps if it meant staying alive, while others committed suicide rather than face that choice. Another aligned theme had to do with questioning if one could return to honorable ways once they had broken their own moral code. Was there forgiveness within oneself and within society?
The death of fathers, husbands, sons and lovers impacted everyone but again in different ways. One of the main characters, a higher up in the Communist Party, Szczuka, only really wanted to know how his wife died but his faith in communism was unshaken. Another main character Chelmicki tried valiantly to step away from his assassin role to be with his love but no one comes away unharmed.
And Poland, what is this country that had been independent for only 21 years before the German invasion, with its murdered leadership, burnt cities and legions of the dead? Can it stand up to the forces about to overrun it?
The writing is very well done and one comes to care about the outcomes.

[Amanda]

This book is already perfectly described by the previous posters here so I'll just say that I found the way it conveys the point of the complexity of who has done crime and who hasn't, and who could possibly be without blood on their hands after such a situation as WWII-post WWII Poland was well done. I gave it 3 stars.