If the Walls Could Speak
Inside a Women's Prison in Communist Poland
Anna Müller
Reviews and Awards
"In a compelling and poignant narrative, Anna Müller shows how a group of women in the most difficult of circumstances were able to resist governmental oppression and assert their human dignity. This is history as it should be told and remembered."--Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan
"A powerful, original, and vivid story of Polish female political prisoners, who are defined not by their status as oppressed victims of communism, but by their humanity and individuality. Muller guides the reader through the drama of imprisonment, interrogation, and gendered rituals of everyday life in a cell with sensitivity and grace."--Malgorzata Fidelis, author of Women, Communism, and Industrialization in Postwar Poland
"Anna Müller's is an extraordinary study of women's prison experience in Stalinist Poland. It uses interviews, archival materials and deep historical insight to challenge the current model of presenting the lives and suffering of the 'doomed soldiers.' In an original and nuanced way, Müller illuminates the modes of survival and the post-prison dealing with the past by the neglected category of women-political prisoners. The book is original, very well written, insightful and compassionate."--Irena Grudzinska-Gross, Princeton University