Kresy Siberia Group

Biographies, Autobiographies, Memoirs

Z Kresow Wschodnich R.P. Wspomnienia z osad wojskowych 1921-1940 (From The Eastern Borderlands of Poland, Memories of military settlements 1921-1940)
Kacperek, Bronia and Whittle, Eric J. (translators).  Association of the Families of the Borderland Settlers, London, 2000.
ISBN 1 872286 33 X
Website: www.StalinsEthnicCleansing.com
Available through Veritas Bookshop, 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9EE, UK
Website: http://www.veritas-london.co.uk
Tel: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4957, Fax: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4965
For selected translations of the above book, click on the list of colonies: Osada Krechowiecka,

Kresowe osadnictwo wojskowe 1920-1945 (Military colonization of Kresy 1920-1945)
Janina Stobniak-Smogorzewska. Warsaw, RYTM, 2003.
ISBN8373990062. 
Website: www.StalinsEthnicCleansing.com
Available through Veritas Bookshop, 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9EE, UK
Website: http://www.veritas-london.co.uk
Tel: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4957, Fax: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4965

Z Kresow Wschodnich R.P. Na Wygnanie. Opowiesci Zeslancow 1940-1946 (From The Eastern Borderlands of Poland, Tales of the Deported 1940-1946)
Kacperek, Bronia and Whittle, Eric J. (translators).  Association of the Families of the Borderland Settlers, London, 2000.
Website: www.StalinsEthnicCleansing.com
Available through Veritas Bookshop, 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9EE, UK
Website: http://www.veritas-london.co.uk
Tel: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4957, Fax: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4965

Stalin's Ethnic Cleansing in Eastern Poland. Tales of the Deported, 1940-1946
Kacperek, Bronia and Whittle, Eric J. (translators).  Association of the Families of the Borderland Settlers, London, 2000.
ISBN 1872286887.  LC Catalog #D810 D5
Website: www.StalinsEthnicCleansing.com
Available through Veritas Bookshop, 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9EE, UK
Website: http://www.veritas-london.co.uk
Tel: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4957, Fax: 00 44 (0)20 8749 4965

From Siberia to America: A Story of Survival and Success
Frusztajer, Boruch (Bronek) University of Scranton Press (February 1, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1589661559, ISBN-13: 978-1589661554
Available at : www.amazon.com

The General Langfitt story - Polish refugees recount their experiences of exile, dispersal, and resettlement
Albrook, Maryan. Canberra, Australian Govt. Pub. Serv., 1995. 
ISBN   0644357819.  LC Catalog #D810  D5
Website: http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/refugee/langfitt/index.htm

Man is Wolf to Man
Bardach, Janusz. University of California Press.
ISBN 0520221524

The Inhuman Land
Czapski, Joseph. London, Polish Cultural Foundation, 1987. Reprint of 1951 Edition. 
ISBN 0850651646

Bronia - the memoirs of Bronia 'Bernice' Polakowska Czarnoski
Czarnoski, Bernice.  (as told by Mary O'Brien Tyrrell).   St Paul, Minn., Memoirs, 2000. 
LC Catalog #  F605.1 C99

Beyond the Urals
Dangerfield, E.  London, British League for European Freedom, 1946.  Facsimile. 1993 Reprint by Ormskirk, Lanc., T. Lyster. 
ISBN 1871482127

Janek, a story of survival
Dowling, Alick.  Letchworth, Ringpress, 1989.  
ISBN  0-948955-45-7.
Online review: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/494/hutchins.html

Konwoj strzela bez uprzedzenia, Polski w wiezieniach i lagrach sowieckich 1944- 1956
Dziewulska -Losiowa, Aniela.  Towarzstwo Literackie imienia Adama Mickiewicza, Oddzial Bialostocki, Bialystok 1994
ISSN 0867-7875, ISBN 83- 86188-03-0
Description:  This book includes detailed lists of 1000 women arrested by the NKWD or serving their  sentences from July 1944 to December 1955 and their stories.  It is a very good source of information. The author of the book  was a liaison officer of  AK (Armia Krajowa), region Wilno, arrested in October 1944 and sentenced  for 10 years. (submitted by Elzbieta Gurtler-Krawczynska)

And God Was Our Witness.
Edwards, A. Bloomington, 1st Books, 2002.
ISBN  0759673152
Availability: 1st Books Library, 2595 Vernal Pike Rd., Bloomington, IN 47404  tel: 1-800-839-8640 website: www.authorhouse.com

After Long Silence - A Memoir
Fremont, Helen. New York, Delacorte Press, 1999. 
ISBN 1550591452.  LC Catalog #D810 D5

War through children's eyes - The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations
Grudzinska, I. and Gross, J. ed.  Stanford, Calif., Hoover Institution Press, 1981.

Paying Guest in Siberia
Hadow, M.  London, Maidstone, 1978, 1959.    
ISBN 0906264014  pbk.  LC Catalog #  LC 810  D5
Availability: Publishers address,  24 Week Street, Maidstone, Kent, UK
Description: Maria Hadow was a young married woman in September 1939. Her husband, an army officer, was taken prisoner by the Soviets and later shot. She describes her forced settlement with her mother and their efforts after the 'amnesty' to find the Polish forces. They travelled by rail --two weeks of 'a nightmare journey' - and in late August or September of 1942 reached Ashkhabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, where they found the Polish Army. By then, Hadow wrote, the last trains carrying soldiers and civilians heading to board ships at the Caspian port of Krasnovodsk had left. Within a week Hadow's mother died in a Polish infirmary in Ashkhabad.
She left Ashkhabad on the last convoy [actually only two lorries] to take Poles out that way over the mountains to Meshed in Persia (Iran). She says the lorries were "full of convalescent soldiers" plus her and one other woman.
Before long she was working in the "Polish Centre" in Meshed, which she writes about (p.108). "On the third day the remains of the last convoy left for Teheran and now only four people were left in the delegation besides myself..... I couldn't bear to be idle so I asked the delegate if I could help in the office. There was quite a lot to do, not only in connection with the civilian evacuation but also with the Polish orphanage, which was in Meshed. As soon as the Polish Embassy in Russia had started functioning they began to collect Polish orphans and to put them in Polish orphanages in several big centres. Then, when the evacuation to Persia started the children were brought to Ashkhabad and from there they went to Meshed from where, after a long rest, they were sent to India. In our town there was a big orphanage with Polish nurses and teachers attached to it. When I offered to work there my offer was gratefully received.....
"By now it was the beginning of October [1942].... One day all the soldiers from Ashkhabad arrived unexpectedly with their Colonel. They brought the very sad news that, the day after I left for Persia, the Russian authorities had closed the frontier and stopped all evacuation. There were still a lot of Poles waiting in Ashkhabad and these were told to go back where they came from. What they must have felt coming so near to the frontier, having one foot almost into freedom and then to be ordered back to their misery...."
She wound up marrying the British vice-consul who was posted in Meshed in 1942. She never gives his name, nor does she say where she lived in Poland. But, being part of the Soviets forced resettlement, we can assume her home was in Eastern Poland. - Review by Joan Eddis-Topolski

The Endless Steppe: a girl in exile.
Hautzig, E. New York, Scholastic Book Services, 1968, 1970
Description: A book aimed at children.

Exiled to Siberia, A Polish child's WW II journey
Hergt, Klaus. (with a Forward by Tadeusz Piotrowski).  Cheboygan, Michigan, Crescent Lake Publishing, 2001.
LC # D810  D5H47 2001.  ISBN 0970043201
Reading list: http://www.wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland/KH1.html
Availability:  Crescent Lake Publishing, 404 North Ball, Cheboygan, Michigan  49721  tel: 231-627-9748.  email: creslkpub@straitsarea.com 
Online review: http://www.polishlibrary.org/review/exiled_to_siberia.htm
Sample chapter: http://wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland/KH.html

A World Apart
Herling, Gustav. Heineman, 1986.

The Unsettled Account - An Autobiography
Huntington, Eugenia. London, Severn House, 1986. 
ISBN  0727820850.  LC Catalog #D810  D5

From Siberia to Italy
Iksander, A. World War Investigator (UK), 1988.

I Remember and Remember Not - Memories of Childhood and Adolescent Years, 1940-1950
Jasionowicz, Maria. (Sister Maria Teresa CSFN) Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, 1997. 
LC Catalog #DK4420  J36

Kazachstan
Januszkiewicz, Maria. Paris, Instytut Literacki,  1981. 
LC Catalog #D811.5
Availability:  Biblioteka Kultury, Paris

The Life of a Young Pole in Russia 1939-46
Karol, K.S.Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1987
ISBN 0-8050-0099-2

Journey without a ticket, to England from Siberia
Kawecka, Z. Krystyna. Nottingham, 1994.  4th ed. 
ISBN  0951588303

Marynia, Don't Cry: Memoir of two Polish-Canadian families
Kojder, A.M. and Glogowska, B.  Toronto, Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1995.
ISBN 0919045650.  LC Catalog #  CT309 K65
Availability: University of Toronto Press

My first survival or My Life in Poland and in the USSR
Kowal, J.S.  Ann Arbor, n.d.

Straws in the Wind
Krajewski, Eugene. London, Cromwell Publishers, 2002.
ISBN 1-903930-02-2
Website: www.strawsinthewind.com
Read newspaper article about the book here

Refugee's trails
Kramek, J.  St. Clair Shores, Michigan, Refugee Trails Fund, Inc., 1990.
LC #DK440.5 K7 Other Publisher: Shelby Twp., Michigan, Refugee Trails Fund, Inc. 1990.

Stolen Childhood--A Saga of Polish War Children
Krolikowski,Lucjan. Lincoln.iUniverse, 2001.
ISBN 0595168639
Availability: www.iUniverse.com, 62205 16th Street, Suite 200, Lincoln, NE  68512  tel: 1-877-823-9235. email: custservice@iuniverse.com
Description: Stolen Childhood is the story of what happened to some 380,000 Polish children who, with their families, were rounded up by Stalin's orders in 1939 and deported into Asiatic Russia. Lucjan Krolikowski, a young seminarian also deported there, shared and witnessed the suffering of his fellow Poles.
Freed by an "amnesty," he joined the Polish Army, and when it moved to the Middle East, Lucjan resumed his theology studies, pronounced his vows, and became a chaplain to a Polish military hospital in Egypt. Reassigned to refugee camps in East Africa, Fr. Lucjan and the wandering Polish children met again in 1947; a meeting that began a long and loving relationship.
In 1949 when the Warsaw Communists claimed guardianship of the Polish orphans in Africa and demanded their repatriation, Fr. Lucjan was forced into a world of international intrigue. Called by the Communists "a kidnapper on an international scale," to his orphans, he was the good shepherd who led them to Canada, where he helped his charges overcome the theft of their childhood and become secure adults in a new world. Stolen Childhood is the book of memories he wrote for them, and a cautionary history for people of good will.

Dying, We Live
Kulski, Julian Eugeniusz. Holt Reinhart and Winston, New York, 1979.
Description: The personal chronicle of a young freedom fighter in Warsaw (1939-45). He was the son of the Catholic Mayor of Warsaw. Just 10 when the country was invaded, he joined the Freedom Fighters at 12, was arrested by the Gestapo, selected to go to Aushwitz and then released. He fought in the 1944 uprising and after surrender was shipped to a POW camp in Germany. He was liberated by the Americans in 1945.Through his father, he met and was present for many of the meeetings with other Polish leaders. - Review by Sherry Roan

No Return
Lachocki, E.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Luthers, 1996. 
ISBN 1877633356.  LC Catalog #D810  D5L23
Availability:  Eugene Lachocki, 2014 Pine Tree Drive, Edgewater, FL, 32141, tel: 386-423-8639,
or email: Ab4uz@aol.com.

Goodbye, Tomorrow.  
Lachocki, Gryzelda. Availability: tel: 386-423-8639, email: Ab4uz@aol.com, or direct address: Gryzelda Niziol Lachocki, 2014 Pine Tree Drive, Edgewater, FL 32141. 
ISBN 1556181817 (alk. paper), ISBN 1556181833 (pbk).  LC Catalog #D810  D5
Description: A beautifully written book that takes you from her village on the Polesie to Archangielsk, then on to Kazakstan, Iran, Lebanon, and her final settlement in the US. Once I started reading, I couldn't putthe book down, and just read on through the night until I'd finished it. Review by Halina Szulakowska

For two and a half years under and with the Soviets
Lantner, Henry. New York, Vantage Press, 1992. 
ISBN  0533101913 
Availability: Out of Print

Jesli Zapomne o Nich...
Lipinska, Grazyna. Publication director is Piotr Jeglinski. "Edition Spotkania" 64 Av. Jean Moulin, 75014 Paris. 1988

Siberian Odyssey, the song of the cornucopia
Lysakowski, Richard. New York, Vantage Press, 1990. 
ISBN 0533083869  LC Catalog #D811   L92

Six Years Til Spring
Mikosz-Hintzke, Teresa. San Jose, Ca., Author's Choice Press, 2001.
ISBN 0595177204. 
Availability: www.iUniversity.com

Remember: Helen's story
Oancia, Sandra.Calgary, Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 1997. 
ISBN  1550591452.  LC Catalog #D810  D5
Availability website: http://www.grahamsanders.com/HelensStory.htm 
Description:  Sixteen-year-old Helen was arrested by Russian soldiers as she walked to school in her native Poland during World War II. The journey took her to a labor camp in Siberia, an orphanage in India, a refugee camp in England, and finally to Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.

Krystyna's Story
Ogonowska-Coates, Halina. Shoal Bay Press.
ISBN 0908704852.
Availability: website: www.pacificislandbooks.com/nzhistbiog.htm
Description: "As a child I loved my mother but she seemed different from other mothers. She didn't know how old she was. She couldn't remember where she was born. I wondered what had happened to her that she could have forgotten such important things. It had something to do with the Second World War."
Krystyna is one of 732 'Polish children' who survived forced deportation to the Soviet Union and was given a home in New Zealand in 1944. Her remarkable story, a composite portrait drawn from interviews with Polish survivors, begins in a peaceful Polish village and follows her family's harrowing journey to a labor camp in Siberia, the terrible flight to freedom, and Krystyna's lonely voyage to a safe refuge in New Zealand.
This is a beautifully evoked account of a child's journey through Europe at war, and a young woman's bewildering encounter with rural New Zealand.
Halina Ogonowska-Coates is an oral historian, writer and filmmaker of Polish descent. In Krystyna's Story she has recorded the experiences of many Poles who came to New Zealand after the Second World War. She has also presented their story in a television film, Exiles - The Story of a Polish Journey

My flight to freedom, an autobiography
Paschwa-Kozicka, A. Chicago, Panorama Publishing Co., 1996.

Pamiec Golgoty Wschodu (Golgotha of the East)
Fr. Peszkowski, Zdzislaw J. Warsaw, Soli Deo, 2000.
ISBN 83-88202-01-4
Availability: Wydawnictwo im. Stefana Kardynala Wyszynskiego "Soli Deo", ul. Dziekania 1, 00-279 Warszawa, Poland
Description: Father Peszkowski is a survivor of the Kozielsk Camp. It was from that camp that Polish officers were transported to their place of execution in Katyn. His book deals with the whole subject of the Russian Invasion of Poland and Crimes committed by the Soviet Union upon the Polish Nation. It contains some interesting documents and photographs. Amongst others, there is a very good picture of the Katyn Monument erected in the year 2000 in Baltimore, USA. - Review by Eugeniusz Krajewski

My Siberian Experience
Piotrowski, Henryk. Toronto, 1996. 
LC Catalog #   D810  D5

Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn: Recollections of the Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against the Poles During World War II
Piotrowski, Tadeusz. (Editor) McFarland & Company, April, 2000.
ISBN: 0786407735
Availability: www.amazon.com
Description: After the 1939 Soviet and 1941 Nazi invasions, the people of Southeast Poland underwent a third and even more terrible ordeal when they were subjected to mass genocide by the Ukrainian Nationalists. Tens of thousands of Poles were tortured and murdered, not by foreign invaders, but by their fellow citizens, who sometimes turned out ot be their neighbors, relatives, and former friends. Other Ukrainians took terrible risks to protect Poles from the slaughter, and often paid for their compassion with their lives.
The children who survived them vividly remember these atrocities and now, many decades later, tell their tragic tales. These accounts, never before published in English, describe the brutal murders these children witnessed, their own miraculous survival, and the heroic rescues that saved them. Demographic and other statistical information on the area is provided. Also included are appendices listing the Ukrainian victims and providing additional stories from other provinces, as well as ample Ukrainian, Polish, Soviet, German, and Jewish documentation and a comprehensive chronology. An index and bibliography are also included.

Vengeance of the Swallows: Memoir of a Polish Family's Ordeal Under Soviet Aggression, Ukrainian Ethnic Cleansing and Nazi Enslavement, and Their Emigration to America
Piotrowski, Tadeusz. McFarland & Company
ISBN: 0786400013
Availability: www.amazon.com

From the Steppes to the Savannah
Porajska, B. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1988, 1990.
ISBN 0340515899. Original edition. Port Erin, Ham Publ. Co., 1988.

Sunshine and Shadows (Moje Zycie)
Pruzanski, Keila. Australia, K. Pruzanski.
LC Catalog #DS135  P63

The Long Walk
Rawicz, Slawomir. New York, Lyons Press, 1956. 
ISBN 1558216847  (pbk),  ISBN 1558216340 (cloth).  LC Catalog #D805 S65
Contains one map with his journey from Moscow toSiberia then via the Himalayas out to Pakistan. A story of a man that was arrested and sent to the Gulags to die, but escaped to tell his story.
Available at:www.amazon.com

Gold from Tears
Roman, Dorothy. Upper Fenntree, Vic., Rex Thompson and Family Publ., Ltd., 1993. 
ISBN 0646189506

From Russian Gulag to Alberta Prairies
Romanko, Maria Alina,
Availability:online book

W Sowieckim Osaczeniu (In Soviet Surroundings)
Siemaszko, Zbigniew S. London, Polska Fundacja Kulturalna, 1991.
Availability: From author - 64, Twyford Avenue, London W3 9QB, Tel: (020) 8992 8489
Description: Anybody wanting to find out more about the deportations to Siberia, about the conditions facing the deportees, and about the 1939-1943 situation in the Kresy area occupied by the Russians, should read this book. The book is in Polish. For further detaisl, you can write to the author. - Review by Romuald Lipinski

Anathema
Sierpinska, Zofia. Privately Published. Book One (248 pages); Book Two (183 pages)
Translation of Anatema; refugee camps in India.

Unforgettable Memoirs - Memories of Polish Exiles in the Soviet Union, 1940-1945
Simenda, Nina. Perth, Polish Siberian Group, 1996. 
ISBN 0646298437 LC Catalog #DK34  P6

Red Snow - A young Poles epic search for his family in Stalinist Russia
Sobierajski, Telesfor. London, L. Cooper, 1996. 
ISBN 0850525004.  LC Catalog #D810.5

The fulfillment of Visionary Return
Synowiec-Tobis, S.H. Northbrook, Illinois, Artpol Publ., 1998. 
ISBN  0-965548872
Availability: Filip Ozarowski, 1019 Longaker Rd., Northbrook, IL  60062  tel: 1-847-272-6156.

The Gehenna of Polish children in the USSR
Szkoda, E. London, CY, 1993.
Availability: POSK Bookshop, London
Description: Gives a detailed account of the state of Polish orphans in the Middle East after the 'Amnesty' and the schools and other facilities that were established by the Polish authorities to rehabilitate and educate them after their ordeal in the Soviet Union. There are also many good photographs from the period. - Review by George Neisser

World War II through Polish Eyes - In Nazi-Soviet Grip
Szonert-Binienda, Maria. East European Monographs, 2002.
ISBN: 0-88033-502-5
Availability: website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/088033/0880335025.HTM

Deportation into the Unknown
Teczarowska, Danuta. Braunton Devon, Merline Books, 1985. (translation from 1981 Polish edition).
ISBN  0863032672

Without Vodka -
Adventures in Wartime Russia
Topolski, Aleksander. McArthur and Co. (Canada)
ISBN  1-552786-121-6; Steerfurth (USA) ISBN  1-58642-012-7
Availability: website: www.withoutvodka.com, book review

The Silver Madonna
Wasilewska, E.  New York, John Day Co., 1971. 
LC Catalog #D805 R9

The Ice Road: An Epic Journey From Stalinist Labour Camps to Freedom
Waydenfeld, Stefan. Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh. March 22, 1999.
Availability: Paperback may be ordered directly from the publisher on a print-on-demand basis through most book shops.
Description: Once I started reading I could not put it down. It is very well written, easy to read and
brings to life many of the stories we have all heard from our families about the
deportations. It's start is a little different from a lot of our stories as Stefan originates from
Otwock, 30 km south of Warsaw. It is his story of how he and his parents ended up in
Pinsk and unable to return to their home, they were deported as undesirables by the
Soviets. A lot of things that happened to them mirrors the tragedies of many other
deportees. However I have to say, probably because of his father's profession, and the fact
that they managed to have money for bribing, one or two of their journeys were more
comfortable than the cattle trucks they otherwise found themselves on. Stefan's destination
near Kotlas and life on the settlement at Kvasha sounds very similar to the life my uncle
described, and I feel  Stefan has made it even easier for me to picture the hardships they
endured. His journey to freedom is certainly a 'mystery tour' where he and his parents had
to be very resourceful to survive the many dilemmas they met on their long journey to
Pahlavi.- Review by Dianne Custance

Lying Down with Dogs - A Personal Portrait of a Polish Exile
Zygadlo, M.  Fife, Lyux, 2001. 
ISBN 0953541371

Joe's War: My Father Decoded
Kobak, Annette and Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, March 2004
ISBN: 0375411844
Available at:www.amazon.com
Part biography, part memoir, part history -- the story of her father's journey beginning in
Lwow, then eastern Poland in 1939, then south and west and eventually joining Polish Army units in France that were evacuated to Britain.

Providence Watching: Memories of Polish War Combatants from the Second World War
Collected by Patalas, Kazimierz translated by Izydorczyk, Zbigniew. University of Manitoba Press, November, 2003
Paper 0-88755-674-4
After the war, Canada accepted over 4000 Polish immigrant soldiers and their families who did not want to return to a communist regime in their country. This book is a moving oral history of the experiences of forty-five individuals during that transition period between the outbreak of war and their eventual relocation in Canada.

Janusz Zurakowski: Legend in the Skies"
Zuk, Bill, Vanwell Publishing Limited, March 2004
ISBN:1551250837).
Available at: http://canavbooks.com/Booklist/
Available at:www.chapters.indigo.ca

Polish Spirit
Wojcik, Wladek, Smoczna Jama Press, 1996
ISBN: 095447760X
Available at:www.grahamsanders.com/polishspirithome.htm
In September 1939, a young Polish Airman was captured by Soviet Troops whilst his unit weas on the run from the invading Germans. The Soviets took him first into the Ukraine and subsequently into the Gulag camps of the Arctic. He escaped, was recaptured, and eventually amnestied when Stalin eventually worked out he'd been on the wrong side all along.
Wojcik came out of the Soviet Union via Turkestan and across the Caspian Sea into Persia. Eventually, after a long journey via India and South Africa, he ended up serving in the Polish Air Force in England, where he was to spend the rest of his life, since returning to a Communist Poland was not an option for him.

"With Great Sacrifice and Bravery": The Career of Polish Ace Waclaw Lapkowski, 1939-41
Knoblock, Glenn, A Merriam Press Original Publication, Monograph 86
Illustrated with Official RAF Combat Reports
See:http://www.merriam-press.com/mono_200/m086.htm
It is the author's hope that, in some small way, this book will help preserve the memory of a little known pilot who fought, not only for his own country, but also for France and England during the early, dark days of World War II. While Waclaw Lapkowski was an experienced pilot who became one of Poland's aces during the war, his early demise, like that of so many others, has relegated his achievements to the back pages of history, making them nearly forgotten. However, in referring to pilots such as Lapkowski, the great British ace Robert Stanford-Tuck cites the many men "who were credited with six, seven, or eight victories", pilots that "formed the bulk and guts of our fighter force."

A Strange Outcome
Roy-Wojciechowski, John, Penguin Books, New Zealand, www.penguin.co.nz
ISBN 0 14 301904 X
Available at:http://www.penguin.co.nz/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780143019046,00.html
Author's link:www.polishheritage.co.nz

Freely I Served
Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski, Battery Press, 1982
ISBN: 0898390613
An account of his escape from his arrest in WWII Poland, his escape via Italy to be in England and lead the Polish Parachute Division. A 203 page hard cover book with
pictures and maps.
Available at:www.batterypresss.com

Przezylem, Pamietam, Swiadcze (I survived, I remember, I witness)
Zimmermann, Henryk Zvi
The story of Zimmermann’s life, with special attention to the war years when he fought as a member of the Jewish Armed Combatant”s Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojownicza) in Krakow, and also with the Polish underground.
Limited availability at: www.amazon.com Out of print

Essence
Tomaszyk, Krystine, Dunmore Press, 2004
ISBN 0-86469-475-X, 135x210mm, 235pp, RRPNZ$27.95
Availability: This book can be ordered ($NZ25 plus postage) from: Dunmore Press, PO Box 5115, Palmerston North, NZ.
ph: 05 358 7169, fax: 06 357 9242
Email:books@dunmore.co.nz
In this Memoir, Krystine Tomaszyk reflects on her life, the earliest memories of which take place as her world, and that of all around her, shatters with the invasion of Poland by the German and then the Soviet army and her deportation to Siberia. This poignant narrative is, at the same time, both a dramatic physical journey, by a very long route to New Zealand, and an exploration of the mind of a child, coping with and making meaning of the events she is caught up in. Essence is a thoughtful exploration of being and becoming, an experience the reader can participate in and be challenged by. Essence is a mosaic of emotional colours, pieced together with honesty and artistry. The author's candour offers an intimate insight into deep-felt and beautifully expressed human emotions. Krystine Tomaszyk studied at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, and her professional life included Maori and child welfare, social work, marriage guidance, Post primary teaching, community advice and award of Meritorious Service by Fairfield Rotary in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Krzak Burzanu
Solinski, Jadwiga
Available at: http://jadwiga_solinska.webpark.pl/zamowienie.htm
Author's link:http://jadwiga_solinska.webpark.pl/krzakburzanu.htm
Email:wiadlok@interia.pl
Telephone: +48 85 716 33 34

New Zealand's First Refugees: Pahiatua's Polish Children
Polish Children's Reunion Committee, New Zealand, 2004
Available through: polishchildren@paradise.net.nz (NZ$40 plus pp)
Contributors: former children, their children, New Zealanders, who were in some way associated with them.
Photographs, maps, list of names, material taken from archives, 2003 Survey of Polish Refugee Children.
100 personal stories of the former refugees, their guardians, the first and second-generations, and New Zealanders who had contact with them in those early years. 416 pages, with 48-page glossy photo section, history, background, facts, statistics and a complete list of all the refugees' names. Not only will it be useful for historians, educators and sociologists as a document to enrich New Zealand's historical heritage, but a fascinating and poignant personal history told by the former refugees, which read like non-fiction short stories.

Noble Flight - Escape and Survival During World War II
Gniewosz, Teresa Bisping with Christopher Gniewosz. Chrisco Trading, Publication Division
ISBN 0-9711628-2-4
Available at: www.nobleyouth.com
Available through CHRISCO Publications, PO Box 25190, Portland, OR 97298, Fax: 503-297-1208
Grace, Exuberance, And Optimism are tested by the horrors of World War II as youthful Terenia with her family are forced to abandon their Polish estate and flee through Europe. Along the way they endure uncertainty, loss, and hope. They are helped--or hindered--by local peasants, the elite of nobility, royalty, and all echelons of the Church. Surrounded by global forces exposing the depths of inhumanity, each family member's strengths and frailties are ruthlessly exposed. As they seek refuge amidst shifting battle lines and national boundaries, Terenia's personal journey leads her to womanhood and a life beyond.

Noble Youth - Adventures of Fourteen Siblings Growing Up on a Polish Estate 1919-1939
Gniewosz, Teresa Bisping with Christopher Gniewosz. Chrisco Trading, Publication Division (2001)
ISBN 0971162867
Available at: www.nobleyouth.com (US$19.95 or C$24.00 )
Cozy up to a tale of family mischief and adventure when times were good in free and affluent Poland. High spirited Terenia explores her interaction with manor house staff, cooks, nannies, governesses, foremen, teamsters, dairymen, foresters, a fish keeper, gardener, gatekeeper and numerous regular and seasonal helpers, field hands and exciting visitors to the estate. Each season offered unique tasks and opportunities on the self-sufficient noble estate. Laugh and cry with Terenia in her experiences with family, at school and as she broke out to explore the world.

Born and raised under a straw roof: A true legacy of the human spirit.
Drzewiecki, Mary Anna.
ISBN 0968745806
Available at: www.amazon.com

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