Edward Herzbaum

Not having suffered under an invading army in several centuries, it is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone living in the United Kingdom to comprehend the plight of the Polish people in September 1939, when two superpowers, Germany and Russia, swept across its borders, under a secret pact to seize the land and its peoples and to divide it up between them. For millions of Poles, this was just the beginning of a nightmare that was to go on for five years; and yet still, when they thought the nightmare was over, they found that for many, their families had been murdered, and their homes no longer existed or had been apportioned to other countries, given away by the very Allies they had been fighting alongside for the previous five years.


It is all the more remarkable then, given the situation, that Edward Herzbaum found the will and the means to document his wartime story in words and art. His legacy lay undiscovered in an old leather suitcase for over 50 years, to be discovered by his daughter as fading handwritten script in old notebooks, and as a large number of sketches. His journals have been published in English 'Lost Between Worlds', and in Polish, 'Miedzy Swiatami' and have been recognized by historians as a significant primary source. This book now brings Edward’s artwork into the daylight, from his early wartime sketches as he escaped Stalin’s clutches, when paper and paints were barely available, through his journey into Italy as part of Anders' Army under British command, and finally to his post-war training as an architect in Rome and London.