Under the Red Star and the Swastika: Baranavichy Region in 1939–1944

The book "Under the Red Star and the Swastika. Baranavichy Region in 1939–1944" reveals the tragic pages of the region's history during the Soviet and German occupations. Through the fates of ordinary people, it shows the terror, the deportation of Polish military settlers with their families, the creation of ghettos, and the physical extermination of Jews. This is a thorough study of daily life during the war, when ordinary civilians suffered most in the struggle between totalitarian systems.

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The book explores the daily life of the inhabitants of the Baranavichy region. Although the Soviet and German regimes espoused different ideologies, both were cannibalistic. Both practiced terror against the civilian population and sought to exterminate entire groups of it. The Soviets carried out a total deportation of Polish military settlers and their families from the region, while the Nazis herded Jews into ghettos to soon begin their physical liquidation. The German occupation brought significantly more human casualties, as it occurred in the conditions of a ruthless war of extermination, and the peak of bloodshed fell at a time when the Germans felt the prospect of defeat in this war.