The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs present a webinar in the Studying Poland Today series Poland: Where the World War II Began by Roger Moorhouse.

The lecture will examine Poland’s fate in the opening two years of World War Two – from the signature of the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939, to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.  It will cover the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in September 1939 and the two brutal occupation regimes that followed.  It will also address the question of why this period is so often misunderstood in the Western narrative of the war.

This is the third episode in the Studying Poland Today talk series which purpose is to raise the level of expert knowledge about Poland in foreign countries and, in particular, to strengthen Polish Studies in the universities of the English-speaking world.

Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specializing in modern German and Central European history, with a particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War Two in Europe.

A visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw, he is also the author of a number of books on modern German history, including “Killing Hitler”, “Berlin at War”, “The Third Reich in 100 Objects” and “The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941”.  He is a regular commentator in the specialist and general press and a consultant for film and television.

His latest book “First to Fight: The Polish War 1939” – on the September Campaign that opened World War Two in Europe – was published by Bodley Head in the UK, and Znak in Poland, in September 2019

More: KF page for the webinar, webinar registration page