Lithuanians in the Polish Armed Forces and German Captivity, 1939–1945

This book uncovers the little-known history of Lithuanians from the Vilnius Region who were mobilised into the Polish Armed Forces in 1939. Dr Arūnas Bubnys conducts an exhaustive examination of the fate of Lithuanian soldiers during World War II, based on documents from the Lithuanian Special Archives and other historical sources.
The book discusses how Lithuanians from the Vilnius Region, along with Poles, Belarusians and people of other nationalities, were mobilised into the Polish Armed Forces and fought in battles against the Wehrmacht. Some of them died at the front, but the majority were captured by the Germans, put in prisoner-of-war camps, and forced to do manual labour until their liberation in 1945.
The author provides a detailed account of the participation of Lithuanian soldiers in important battles, such as the defence of Warsaw and the Modlin Fortress, as well as their living conditions in German captivity. The book also examines how prisoners of war were assigned to work for German farmers and how they returned to Lithuania after the war.
This is an important contribution to the historiography of World War II and Lithuania, uncovering a thus far relatively under-explored topic. The book is designed for anyone interested in Lithuanian history, military history and people’s destinies during wartime.