The book is named after the phenomenon, documented around the Treblinka extermination camp, of villagers digging up mass graves of Jewish victims in order to retrieve the golden tooth fillings of the deceased.

[3] Gross begins the book with a subject statement: “The collusion of the Polish population in the pillaging and killing of Jews at the periphery of the Holocaust.

According to Browning, contemporary research shows that Jews hiding in rural Poland were exposed by Polish village elites and officials and were often subjected to torture, rape, and public humiliation in an attempt to force them to reveal their presumed "hidden wealth".

Catholic Poles resented those who hid Jews, as they were seen as engaging in "unjustified enrichment" at the expense of the rest of the community who did not receive their "fair share" of Jewish property.

[5] The head of Znak, the book's publisher, stated: "It does not purport to provide a comprehensive overview of Polish rural communities' actions...

[7] Ingo Loose reviewed Golden Harvest, alongside Jan Grabowski's Hunt for the Jews, and Barbara Engelking's It Was Such a Beautiful Sunny Day.