April 2024, Greenhill Books

This book is moral dynamite. It reveals not only what men can do in war but also what war can do to men – Norman Davies

Memoir of Stefan Dąmbski, a Polish Home Army executioner, with foreword by Roger Moorhouse and introduction by Marek Sobieralski. The book is not only a translation of Dąmbski’s harrowingly detailed memoirs, but also follows his transition from a young teenager into a seasoned executioner. It’s a moral tale filled with self-accusation and guilt, as this platoon-leader questions notions of heroism, patriotism and the very act of war itself.

Stefan Dąmbski joined the Polish Home Army in 1942 when he was just 16 years old. The Home Army formed the military wing of the Polish Underground, the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe, established to fight the Nazi occupation of Poland during the Second World War.

During this occupation, the Home Army passed death sentences on hundreds of individuals – both Nazi enemies and colluding Polish compatriots. As one of the few Home Army members who volunteered to carry out these death sentences, the young Dąmbski quickly became a seasoned executioner.

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Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specializing German and Polish history in WW2. He is the author of a number of books and is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw.

Marek Sobieralski regularly writes for History of War magazine. He published his first book The Katyń Diaries in 2021, a first English-language translations of diaries of Polish military officers murdered by the NKVD in 1940, translated into English. He continues to work on various diverse writing projects.