Rotten militia members, corrupt mercenaries, deserters, bandits, hundreds of thousands of war veterans, orphans, and beggars shaped the image of post-war Poland. Marcin Zaremba takes the reader on a shocking journey into a time that has vanished not only from the memory of Poles but also into a war-devastated land filled with fear, poverty, and uncertainty. "The Great Fear" is the story of the first years after World War II, stripped of all myths and legends. The author depicts a shattered society where assaults, rapes, and looting were commonplace, and where pogroms against Jews reoccurred. An uncertain future robbed the war-torn people, who had endured five years of occupation, of their sleep. Is there going to be a new war? Will I survive hunger and epidemics? Will I find a home and work in this country that doesn't even have fixed borders?.