 After being translated into Polish, it was read by the people with whom the Lewinkopf family lived during the war.They recognized names of Jewish children sheltered by them (who also survived the war), depicted in the novel as victims of abuse by characters based on them.Also, according to Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, "The Painted Bird" was Kosiński's most successful attempt at profiteering from the Holocaust by maintaining an aura of a chronicle.