The Ice Road: An Epic Journey from the Stalinist Labor Camps to Freedom
With the Soviet dystopia as background, the book reads like a terror-filled adventure – all the more so because it’s non-fiction.
Post Tagged with: "WWII"
2010 Vol. 2 No.1 — Spring / Books
2009 — Winter / Features
The Noble and Compassionate Heart of the Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijay Sinhi
Between August 1942 and November 1946, close to 1,000 Polish children and their guardians lived in idyllic settlements on the Kathiawar Peninsula in India not far from the summer residence of the Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijay Sinhi. They had come at the Maharaja’s invitation from orphanages in Ashkabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, and Samarkand.
2009 — Winter / Books
The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt: War Through a Woman’s Eyes, 1939-1940
Anyone who’s ever read memoirs written during or immediately after the war knows how very different they are from those written many years later. The writing is vivid, unembellished, adrenalin charged. Memories have not yet faded, been tampered with. There is no editorializing. War is an experience unlike any other. Nobody comes out of it unchanged. When these experiences are recorded by gifted writers – and Rulka Langer certainly was that — they are at once harrowing, inspiring and breathtaking.
2009 — Winter / Books
Publishing the Greatest Story Never Told
A great cover and a good review are often enough to get someone interested in a book, but it is not often that the book leads to curiosity about the publisher. Yet that is exactly what The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt did. Who published this beautiful book? Aquila Polonica? A new publishing house dedicated to the Polish World War II story? Who are they, and why this focus?
2009 — Winter / Books
The Black Madonna of Derby
An interview with Joanna Czechowska in The Guardian sparked CR’s instant interest in her book, The Black Madonna of Derby. Although her mother was English, Czechowska was raised in her father’s Polish community, complete with Saturday schools, scout groups and dances in the Polish Hall. Since her mother worked, Czechowska was raised by her adored and adoring Polish grandmother, who spoke several languages but none of them English.
2009 — Winter / Books
Poles in Barcelona and Their Stories
From Barcelona comes a vibrant, moving account of hope and resilience in the form of a visually stimulating, richly illustrated book: Poles in Barcelona and Their Stories: How the City Welcomed Polish Children Stolen by the Nazis (1946-1956).
2009 — Winter / Features
When Decency Meant Heroism
In early November, just in time for Holocaust Education Week, a special delegation from Poland arrived in Canada. Three Righteous Gentiles, who between them saved seven Jews from Nazi terror and helped countless others and a child Holocaust survivor, sheltered and later adopted by a Christian couple, came to tell Canadians their stories.
2009 — Summer / Features
Reminiscences: Fathers, Socks and “Figi”
I recently reminisced about my son’s visit to England when he was eighteen. He took his bike with him and had his itinerary well planned. It included a trip to Hatherleigh, a little town in Devon where my family spent a year when my parents were reunited after their long wartime separation.
2009 — Summer / Books
Katyń: A Crime Without Punishment
Katyń: A Crime Without Punishment is the latest volume in “The Annals of Communism” series published by Yale University Press. Rightly described as the most important publishing project currently in progress in the United States, it documents the 70-year reign of terror that began with the Communist revolution in Russia and has been largely ignored by western intellectuals – when not actively indulged by them.
2008 / Features
The Baroness, History and Restitution: Norman Davies Recounts a Series of Dramatic Meetings
Professor Norman Davies presents a living history lesson – about compensation for properties lost during World War II in Eastern Europe.
2008 / Interviews
A Few Questions for… Timothy Snyder, historian
A conversation with Timothy Snyder, a rare specialist in the history of modern nationalism and the history of Central and Eastern Europe who gives thoughtful insight on current events in the light of the past.
2008 / Films
The Art of Making History Come to Life – Wanda Koscia’s Battle for Warsaw ’44
“Polish-Americans, Polish Canadians, and Polish Britons are aware and fiercely proud of the fantastic heritage and history that is Poland’s,” says Justine Jablonska, “and the onus to tell the world our stories is on us.” Coupling word with action, Justine joined forces with The Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies in Montreal to invite British film director Wanda Koscia to Chicago to show her documentary, The Battle for Warsaw ’44.
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