East West Street was the winner of The Bailie Gifford Prize for non-fiction in 2016. It was written by the human rights lawyer Phillipe Sands and it is proving to me to be an enthralling read. I am going to Warsaw in March and then traveling east to the Bialowieźa Forest for the wildlife and so I want to read as much as possible about what has happened in that country. I have already read about the history of Poland and the harrowing events they experienced during The Second World War, but within only a few chapters of his book I am learning much more.
The complex situation created in 1919 by The Versailles Treaty and another treaty accentuated the division of the rights of the Poles with minority groups. I can not do these pages any justice in just a couple of lines, but reading on I found this decades old prediction in relation to the conflict that exists between Jew and Arab. The philosopher Martin Buber opposed Zionism as form of abhorrent nationalism and held the view that a Jewish Stare would oppress Arabs. And so it is and at this time of year I can reflect with sadness the horror of events that exist in Palestine and in many other nations.
There is much more to this book that I have written here, but I look forward to more enlightenment and, for me, this is a book that is a must read.
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