BARBARA TOPORSKA'S 'SISTERS' - A STORY OF TWO LIVES

This article deals with the main themes of 'Sisters' by Barbara Toporska (1913-1985), a forgotten authoress who lived in the shadow of her famous husband, Józef Mackiewicz. Published abroad in 1966, the novel was able to raise issues that were taboo in post-war Poland, ie. the analogies between the communist and the Nazi systems or the problem of anti-Semitism among activists of the left. This analysis is also concerned with such aspects of Toporska's novel as a woman's view of the Nazi occupation, the complex question of Polish-Jewish identities, and the difference between the fate of Poles and Jews during the war.