Drawing on autobiographical writings, oral histories, interrogation protocols, and cell spy reports, If the Walls Could Speak focuses on the lives of women in prison in postwar communist Poland. Some were jailed for their alleged collaboration with the Nazis during the war, some for postwar activities in various civil as well as quasi-military groups, still others for allegedly dubious activities on the basis of their relationships with those already imprisoned. In some cases, there was some evidence of their anti-state activities; in many others, the accusations were absurd and based on cumbersome definitions of "anti-state." Anna Muller shows how these women struggled to resist identifying themselves as "prisoners" and regain their voices through a dialogue between the "self," a hostile prison world, and the world outside, which, as time passed, became increasingly menacing. The prison system in postwar Poland functioned as a tool to subjugate society and silence or destroy enemies-anti-communists, but also committed communists. Arrests, trials, and prison sentences directly and indirectly affected tens of thousands of people. Imprisonment stigmatized both prisoners and their families, inspiring fear and insecurity. Out of fear, worry for their loved ones, or a need to act, women prisoners took on different roles and personalities to protect themselves and create a semblance of normality, despite abuses and prison confinement. They used words to (re)create themselves during an interrogation; they used their senses to orient themselves in the spatial organization of the prison and to create a feeling of security; they used their physicality as a confirmation of their gender identity and a means of exerting pressure on the authorities; and they attempted to build a communal cultural, social, religious, and educational life by drawing on patterns they had acquired in their lives outside of prison. Following the trajectory of women's life stories--from the moment of interrogation, through the attempt to create themselves in a cell, to the post-prison reordering of their old lives--this book reveals how the prison cell in postwar Poland became a laboratory of human heterogeneity, of reconstruction, and reinvention of the self, and how life in a Stalinist prison adds to our understanding of coercion and resistance under totalitarian regimes.

About the Author
Anna Muller is assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Reviews
[This] is a thorough and extremely well researched book. The author's ability to transcend the detail and to deliver a balanced and clear discussion on the subject, is truly commendable. This is worthy of comment because, as she admits, she became very fond of the women whom she interviewed and clearly her empathy with them enriched the narrative. To rise above these strong emotions to write a book on the prison system as much as it is on the women's experience, is impressive. * Anita J. Prazmowska, European History Quarterly *
[Muller] depicts, with vivid detail and compassionate analysis, arrest and interrogation, adaptation to life in a cell, relationships among cellmates, and efforts to fill the emptiness of prison life..Scholars and students of post-war East European society, particularly those interested in women and gender, will discover much of value in this book, as will others who study the sociology of prison populations. Muller illuminates a dark period of Polish history, conveying not just the anguish of the females imprisoned by the Communist regime, but the women's strength, inventiveness, and tenacity. * Katherine R. Jolluck, American Historical Review *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the Oskar Halecki Award of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America.



Book Information
ISBN 9780190499860
Author Anna Muller
Format Hardback
Page Count 344
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 662g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 28mm