Nine Lives: Ethnic Conflict in the Polish-Ukrainian Borderlands

This is a riveting account of the day to day battle for survival experienced by a Polish teenager in occupied Poland and as such, is far more than just a description of ethnic violence as the title might suggest.Much of the narrative sent shivers up my spine in a way that no Hollywood horror movie ever could. These monsters, all of them, were very real. It is blunt and plain spoken with no details spared for the sake of the squeamish or politically correct.It is an essential read for those wishing to learn the truth about war.

This is one of the best World War II memoir I ever read. The author was a Polish partisan and this book chronicle his experiences fighting against Germans and Ukranians. He is shockingly honest in his account of the brutal atrocities committed by both Polish and Ukrainian sides, including ones he participated. His experience is very diverse, which span from being a engineering student in German occupied territory, to joining partisan unit, to concentration camp Madjanek, to becoming an agent for NKVD, to deserting the Soviets and joining the Polish Home Army, and then escape to the American zone in Germany. It's nothing short of miraculous that he survived all these experiences.