The looting of priceless works of art in wartime is a well-developed topic of research and journalism. Vozhena Shallcross focuses on a related but not identical issue: the meaning of “ordinary” objects – pots, glasses, shoes, clothes, kitchen utensils – material remnants of a once-lived reality, which the author reads as cultural texts. Shallcross describes the ways in which Holocaust objects are represented in Polish and Polish-Jewish texts written during or shortly after World War II. The research material was the works of Zuzanna Ginczanka, Władysław Schlengiel, Zofia Nałkowska, Czesław Miłosz, Jerzy Andrzejewski and Tadeusz Borowski. Combining close readings of selected texts with critical analysis of various philosophical and theoretical approaches to the nature of matter, Shallcross's study expands contemporary discourse on the Holocaust to capture how humble, usually overlooked objects of material culture live as perceived by writers. Printed in PDF A4 format. books.