Nominations for the fourth edition of the Witold Pilecki International Book Award - Instytut Pileckiego

We know the authors nominated for the Witold Pilecki International Book Award! Out of almost 50 submissions, the Awards Committee has selected 13 publications to compete in 3 categories.

The authors of the best book in each category will receive a cash prize of PLN 40,000 and a commemorative statuette. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony on 18 October 2024 at Reduta Banku Polskiego in Warsaw. The event is held under the honorary patronage of Hanna Wróblewska, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

“The Pilecki Award draws particular attention to the publication of important academic and reportage books that touch on the issues of fundamental significance to the Pilecki Institute: the history of the 20th century as seen from the perspective of experiencing totalitarian practices, as well as the most acute problem of today: the reemergence of genocidal practices during Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine,” says Dr. Mateusz Werner, Secretary of the Awards Committee.

“The present edition of the Pilecki Award is immensely gratifying with regard to the academic publications, as all of them are of excellent quality. Many books deserve the main prize in this category, so it will definitely be difficult to select the winner. In the present edition, we have more submissions concerning the Holocaust and the history of Polish Jews than in the previous years. There are also several works devoted to the Volhynia Massacre and Polish-Russian relations,” he adds.

The Witold Pilecki International Book Award was inaugurated in 2021, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Witold Pilecki, by the Pilecki Institute in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The award is international. In all categories, the award is open to books written in Polish or English. Drawing inspiration from its Patron, the competition promotes writings that uphold the belief in fundamental values: human dignity, the pursuit of truth, a readiness to sacrifice, and solidarity with the persecuted. The statuette is presented to authors of the best academic and reportage books published in Polish or English in 2023 that touch on the Polish experience of two totalitarianisms.

The Awards Committee presents the award in three categories: academic history book, historical reportage and the special prize, which for the past two years has been awarded for works detailing Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine since 2014 or the protests in Belarus since 2020 and the
repression associated with them.

The international Awards Committee is comprised of Dr. Łukasz Adamski, Prof. Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski, Prof. Marek Cichocki, Dr. Piotr Cywiński (Chair), Jack Fairweather, Prof. Patrycja Grzebyk, Prof. Marek Kornat, Dr. Wojciech Kozłowski, Dr. Wojciech Stanisławski and Prof. Claudia
Weber, as well as war correspondent Jack Fairweather and Krzysztof Kosior – representative of the patron’s family, great-grandson of Witold Pilecki.

NOMINATIONS

Category I. Academic history book – the best monograph or synthesis concerning the Polish experience of the confrontation with two 20th-century totalitarian regimes. The prize will be awarded to well-researched books comprising an original interpretation and written in an appealing way.

Nominees:

• Grzegorz Hryciuk, Przesiedleńcy. Wielka epopeja Polaków 1944–1946, Wydawnictwo Literackie
• Łukasz Dryblak, Szermierze wolności i zakładnicy imperium. Emigracyjny dialog polsko-rosyjski w latach 1939–1956. Konfrontacje idei, koncepcji oraz analiz politycznych, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Historii PAN
• Henryk Stroński, Marchlewszczyzna 1925–1935. Polski rejon narodowościowy na sowieckiej Ukrainie, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej
• Katarzyna Nowak, Kingdom of Barracks. Polish Displaced Persons in Allied-Occupied Germany and Austria, Wydawnictwo McGill-Queen’s University Press
• Dieter Schenk, Witold Kulesza, Arthur Greiser. Biografia i proces namiestnika III Rzeszy w Kraju Warty, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Category II. Historical reportage – a captivating depiction of the Polish experience of two 20th-century totalitarianisms. In addition to classic historical reportages, entries in this category may include biographies, collections of accounts, memoirs and correspondence of witnesses to history. The prize will be awarded for respectful approach to historical sources, well-organized composition and unbiased narrative.

Nominees:

• Kalina Błażejowska, Bezduszni. Zapomniana zagłada chorych, Wydawnictwo Czarne
• Mariusz Nowik, Krwawe dożynki 1943, Prószyński i S-ka
• Paweł Brudek, Ukryta przestrzeń. Wojskowe lata warszawskiego Bemowa 1945–1989, Księży Młyn Dom Wydawniczy
• Hanka Grupińska, 18 opowieści żydowskich. Tom 2, Wydawnictwo Wielka Litera
• Marta Sawicka-Danielak, Ostatni Białystoker, Wydawnictwo Wielka Litera

Category III. The special prize for a book detailing Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine since 2014 or the protests in Belarus since 2020 and the repression associated with them. When evaluating books in this category, a broad scope of reflection, determination in the pursuit of truth, and investigative intuition will be particularly appreciated.

Nominees:

• Olena Stiazhkina, Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary, Wydawnictwo Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
• Christopher Miller, The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine, Wydawnictwo Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Paweł Reszka, Stolik z widokiem na Kreml, Wydawnictwo Wielka Litera

THE WINNERS OF PREVIOUS EDITIONS

In the previous edition, the Pilecki Award was presented to Agnieszka Witkowska-Krych for her book Dziecko wobec Zagłady. Instytucjonalna opieka nad sierotami w getcie warszawskim and to Bartłomiej Noszczak for his book Orient zesłańców. Bliski Wschód w oczach Polaków ewakuowanych
ze Związku Sowieckiego (1942–1945). The special prize was awarded to Zbigniew Parafianowicz for his book Śniadanie pachnie trupem. Ukraina na wojnie.

In 2022, the winners of the second edition were Niemiecki zbrodniarz przed polskim sądem. Krakowskie procesy przed Najwyższym Trybunałem Narodowym by Dr. Joanna Lubecka (academic history book) and Wielka gra majora Żychonia. As wywiadu kontra Rzesza by Andrzej Brzeziecki
(historical reportage). The special prize was awarded to Tomaš Forró for his book Apartament w hotelu wojna. Reportaż z Donbasu.

In 2021, the Pilecki Award was presented to Filip Gańczak for his book Jan Sehn. Tropiciel nazistów and to Christina Lamb for her famous work Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women (in 2023, the book was published in Polish as Nasze ciała, ich pole bitwy).

More information about the Pilecki Award:
https://instytutpileckiego.pl/pl/projekty/nagroda-literacka