This is a select bibliography of English language books (including translations) and journal articles about the history of Poland during World War II. For works about the overall history of Poland, please see Bibliography of the history of Poland.

Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums.

Citations follow APA style. Book have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible. In cases where a title or name has appeared with more than one English spelling, the most recent published form is used and a footnote documents any earlier title under which the work appeared.

General surveys

Davies, N. (2007). No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945. New York: Viking. Furber, D. (2004). Near As Far in the Colonies: The Nazi Occupation of Poland. The International History Review, 26(3), 541–579. Garliński, J. (1985). Poland in the Second World War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Gross, J. T. (2019). Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939-1944 (Princeton Legacy Library). Princeton: Princeton University Press. Kochanski, H. (2012). The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. McGilvray, E. (2019). Poland and the Second World War, 1938–1948. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. Paczkowski, A. (2003). The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom (J. Cave, Trans.). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Rawson, A. (2019). Poland's Struggle: Before, During and After the Second World War. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military.

Regional surveys Bergen, D. L. (2005). Tenuousness and Tenacity: The Volksdeutschen of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust. In K. O'Donnell, R. Bridenthal, & N. Reagin (Eds.), The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness (pp. 267–286). University of Michigan Press. Mazower, M. (2008). Hitler's Empire. Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe. New York: Penguin. Pinchuk, B. C. (1978). The Sovietization of the Jewish Community of Eastern Poland 1939-1941. Slavonic and East European Review, 56(3), 387–410. Prażmowska, A. J. (2000). Eastern Europe and the Origins of the Second World War. New York: Red Globe Press. Ther, P., & Siljak, A. (Eds.). (2001). Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944–1948 (The Harvard Cold War Studies Book). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Military Davies, N. (2015). Trail of Hope: The Anders Army, An Odyssey Across Three Continents. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. Drzewieniecki, W. M. (1981). The Polish Army on the Eve of World War II. The Polish Review, 26(3), 54–64. Forczyk, R. (2019). Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. Gross, J. (2002). Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988; Expanded Edition. Koskodan, K. K. (2009). No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland's Forces in World War II. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. McGilvray, E. (2022). First Polish Armoured Division 1938-47: A History. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Murphy-Gemmill, L. M. (2017). "Poland Is Not Yet Lost": The Tadeusz Kościuszko Polish Armed Unit in Canada 1941–1942. The Polish Review, 62(4), 67–84. Peszke, M. A. (1980). A Synopsis of Polish-Allied Military Agreements during World War Two. Military Affairs, 44(3), 128–134. Peszke, M. A. (1981). The Polish Armed Forces in Exile: Part I. September 1939-July 1941. The Polish Review, 26(1), 67–113. Peszke, M. A. (1984). The Polish Parachute Brigade in World War Two: A Paradigm for the Polish Military in Exile. Military Affairs, 48(4), 188–193. Peszke, M. A. (1987). The Polish Armed Forces in Exile: Part 2 July 1941—May 1945. The Polish Review, 32(1), 33–69. Peszke, M. A. (1988). The Polish Government's Aid to and Liaison with Its Secret Army in Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Military Affairs, 52(4), 197–202. Peszke, M. A. (1994). The Forgotten Campaign: Poland's Military Aviation in September, 1939. The Polish Review, 39(1), 51–72. Peszke, M. A. (2016). Poland's Military Aviation, September 1939: It Never Had a Chance. In R. Higham & S. J. Harris (Eds.), Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat (2nd Ed., pp. 13–40). University Press of Kentucky. Sword, K. (Ed). (1991). The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939–41. (Studies in Russia and East Europe). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Toczewski, A. (1992). Cooperation Between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich in Exchanges of Polish Population and Prisoners of War in the Years 1939-1941. The Polish Review, 37(2), 209–215. Williamson, D. G. (2009). Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Zamoyski, A. (1995). The Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War. New York: Hippocrene Books.

War crimes For works about the Holocaust, please see #Holocaust in Poland. Cienciala, A. M., Lebedeva, N. S., & Materski, W. (Eds.). (2008). Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment. New Haven: Yale University Press. Mędykowski, W. W. (2018). Macht Arbeit Frei?: German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939-1943. Academic Studies Press. Tuszynski, M., & Denda, D. F. (1999). Soviet War Crimes Against Poland During The Second World War And Its Aftermath: A Review Of The Factual Record And Outstanding Questions. The Polish Review, 44(2), 183–216. Paul, A. (2010). Katyn: Stalin's Massacre and the Triumph of Truth. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Snyder, T. (1999). To Resolve the Ukrainian Problem Once and for All: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland, 1943–1947. Journal of Cold War Studies, 1(2), 86–120. Snyder, T. (2003). The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing 1943. Past & Present, 179, 197–234. Tuszynski, M., & Denda, D. F. (1999). Soviet War Crimes Against Poland during the Second World War and Its Aftermath: A Review of the Factual Record and Outstanding Questions. The Polish Review, 44(2), 183–216. Urban, T. (2020). The Katyn Massacre 1940: History of a Crime. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. Wheatcroft, S. G. (1996). The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930-45. Europe-Asia Studies, 48(8), 1319–1353. Wheatcroft, S. G. (2000). The Scale and Nature of Stalinist Repression and Its Demographic Significance: On Comments by Keep and Conquest. Europe-Asia Studies, 52(6), 1143–1159. Wierzbicki, M., & Rosenson, C. (2007). Polish–Jewish Relations in Vilna and the Region of Western Vilna under Soviet Occupation, 1939-1941. In M. B. Biskupski & A. Polonsky (Eds.), Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 19: Polish-Jewish Relations in North America (pp. 487–516). Liverpool University Press. Wróbel, P. J. (2014). Class War or Ethnic Cleansing? Soviet Deportations of Polish Citizens from the Eastern Provinces of Poland, 1939–1941. The Polish Review, 59(2), 19–42. Zamojski, J. E. (2001). The Social History of Polish Exile (1939–1945).: The Exile State and the Clandestine State: Society, Problems and Reflections. In M. Conway & J. Gotovitch (Eds.), Europe in Exile: European Exile Communities in Britain 1940-45 (1st Ed., pp. 183–212). Berghahn Books.

Social Gross, J. (2019). Polish Society Under German Occupation: The Generalgouvernement, 1939-1944 (Princeton Legacy Library). Princeton: Princeton University Press. Gross, J. (2001). Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Piotrowski, T. (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Röger, M., & Ward, R. (2021). Wartime Relations: Intimacy, Violence, and Prostitution in Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sword, K. (1994). Deportation and Exile: Poles in the Soviet Union, 1939–48. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Zamojski, J. E. (2001). The Social History of Polish Exile (1939–1945): The Exile State and the Clandestine State: Society, Problems and Reflections. In M. Conway & J. Gotovitch (Eds.)., Europe in Exile: European Exile Communities in Britain 1940-45 (1st ed., pp. 183–212). London: Berghahn Books.

Location histories Mick, C. (2011). Incompatible Experiences: Poles, Ukrainians and Jews in Lviv under Soviet and German Occupation, 1939-44. Journal of Contemporary History, 46(2), 336–363.

General Government Under construction

Topical Cienciala, A. M. (1988). The Question of the Polish-Soviet Frontier in 1939–1940: the Litauer Memorandum and Sikorski's Proposals for Re-Establishing Polish-Soviet Relations. The Polish Review 33(3), 295–323. Grzebalkowska, M. (2020). Poland 1945: War and Peace (J. Markoff & M. Markoff, Trans.). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Markiewicz, P. (2021). Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. Moorhouse, R. (2020). Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II. New York: Basic Books. Pinchuk, B.-C. (1986). Cultural Sovietization in a Multi-Ethnic Environment: Jewish Culture in Soviet Poland, 1939-1941. Jewish Social Studies, 48(2), 163–174.

Collaboration Blum, A., Chopard, T., & Koustova, E. (2020). Survivors, Collaborators and Partisans?: Bringing Jewish Ghetto Policemen Before Soviet Justice in Lithuania. Jahrbücher Für Geschichte Osteuropa's, 68(2), 222–255. Connelly, J. (2005). Why the Poles Collaborated So Little: and Why That is No Reason for Nationalist Hubris. Slavic Review, 64(4), 771–781. Dean, M. (2005). Where Did All The Collaborators Go? Slavic Review, 64(4), 791–798. Dean, M. (2007). Poles in the German Local Police in Eastern Poland and Their Role in the Holocaust. In C. Freeze, P. Hyman, & A. Polonsky (Eds.), Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 18: Jewish Women in Eastern Europe (pp. 353–366). Liverpool University Press. Finder, G. N., & Prusin, A. V. (2008). Jewish Collaborators on Trial in Poland 1944–1956. In G. N. Finder, N. Aleksiun, A. Polonsky, & J. Schwarz (Eds.), Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 20: Making Holocaust Memory (pp. 122–148). Liverpool University Press. Friedrich, K.-P. (2005). Collaboration in a "Land Without a Quisling": Patterns of Cooperation with the Nazi German Occupation Regime in Poland during World War II. Slavic Review, 64(4), 711–746.

Trials and reprisals Finder, G. N., & Prusin, A. V. (2018). Justice Behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland. University of Toronto Press.

Underground and resistance Armstrong, J. A. (1994). The Polish Underground and the Jews: A Reassessment of Home Army Commander Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski's Order 116 Against Banditry. Slavonic and East European Review, 72(2), 259–276. Garlinski, J. (1975). The Polish Underground State (1939-45). Journal of Contemporary History, 10(2), 219–259. Korboński, S. (1978). The Polish Underground State, 1939–1945. Boulder: East European Monographs. Kochanski, H. (2022). Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.