Announcing the winner of the Ludwik Krzyzanowski Award for the best article published in The Polish Review in 2023: Dariusz Libionka (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) for “On Military Assistance to the Fighters of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw – 80 Years Later,” translated by Philip Earl Steele and published in The Polish Review, Volume 68, Number 4 (2023): 3–35.

This article is free to access in April 2025 in recognition of this honor.

Citation by the Editorial Board of The Polish Review

With its remarkable range of published and unpublished sources and careful attention to time, place, and emotion, Dariusz Libionka’s “On Military Assistance to the Fighters of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw – 80 Years Later” is a tour de force.  Libionka’s sophisticated and expert analysis of Polish aid to the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943 is a major contribution to the field of Holocaust studies, based on the strength of the argument and the wealth of primary and secondary materials consulted.  At every point, this landmark study makes history relevant to our own time.  It is an excellent example of unraveling how conflicting narratives develop on the basis of personal or, more often, political perspectives and become accepted by much of the public and academe.  Libionka successfully wades through these conflicting claims to provide a more balanced and realistic view of not only what occurred but what was even possible, given the strict control by the occupying German forces. This outstanding article demonstrates historical detective work that also has important implications for today.

Biographical Note

Dariusz Libionka is a professor in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology and the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Since 2005, he has served as editor-in-chief of the journal Zaglada Zydow: Studia i Materialy. His research focuses on the history of antisemitism and on the attitudes of the Catholic Church in Poland and the Polish Underground State toward the Holocaust. His many publications include Zydzi w powstanczej Warszawie (coauthored with Barbara Engelking; 2009), Bohaterowie, hochsztaplerzy, opisywacze: Wokol Zydowskiego Zwi?zku Wojskowego (coauthored with Laurence Weinbaum; 2011), and Die Ermordung der Juden im Generalgouvernement (2021).