Exiled To Siberia: A Polish Child's WWII Journey is the engaging biography of a ten-year-old Polish boy deported by the Soviets at the outbreak of World War II. From Henryk Birecki's childhood in a Polish village to his ultimate integration into American society after the war, the reader is treated to a candid and informative story of the hardships and cruelties brought about by the forcible deportation of Polish men, women and children to the bleak and hazardous interior of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Poles died during transport and in the penal and forced labor camps, remote settlements, and the Kolkhozes to which they were banished. After the end of the war Henryk and his sister made it out of the Soviet Union (where his mother died), through Iran and Iraq, then Mexico, and finally to America. Exiled To Siberia is sobering reading and brings those times and events vividly to life for new generations of readers to know and understand the inhumanity and tragedy that afflicted the civilian populace of Eastern Europe during those dark and deadly days.

This story of the forgotten victims of WWII is told from a unique perspective. Two friends--the author and the subject--were personally touched by the war in very different ways. One, a german child, victimized only by the disemination of misinformation and, the other, a polish child, victimized both physically and psychologically, enslaved by the Russian allies, separated from family, seizes the opportunity to search for better life for himself and his sister. The author artfully intertwines history and real life experiences. The story is, in many parts, heartbreaking and, in all parts, facinating.

Mr. Piotrowski has written an important book on a little-known subject. Great many Poles had perished during and after WWII in Poland's eastern territories at the hands of the Red Army and the Soviet Union. However, Poland's conflict with Ukrainians is a different matter, and must be seen in the context of the Ukrainian struggle for independence - against Polish colonialism - in western Ukraine. Centuries of Polish oppression against the Ukrainian people come to an end during this period at a great cost to both Ukrainians and Poles.

During World War 2, Ukrainian-fascist-nationalists (the UPA, the so-called Ukrainian Insurgent Army), imitating the German Nazis, murdered over 100,000 Polish civilians in the most brutal manner imaginable. After collaborating with the Germans in the genocide against the Jews in 1942, the Ukrainian nationalists abandoned German service and formed genocidal bands directed at defenseless Polish civilians. Children were impaled on stakes, and adults were quartered, etc. This was no "liberation of the Ukraine", as Ukrainians had voluntarily co-existed with Poles for centuries on territories which had possessed a mixture of Poles and Ukrainians for centuries, if not from antiquity.

When reading this book, I had the impression that I was there, sitting with the author at the kitchen table, or living room, as he recounted his experiences in the last war. Just like I would stay up all night listening to the author talk, I found I could not put the book down.

At times I found myself in shock. At times, horrified. Yet, I also found myself rejoicing as they made their way to a new life in the United States.

It's part of the Second World War that seems to be missed or forgotten, yet a part that should not be forgotten, and it must be told. Those people experienced horror unimaginable, and unthinkable. At times, almost unbelievable. This is a must have for anyone who wants to know more of what happened in the occupied territories of Poland.

More historical facts and less bias would have made this a better book!

Anything to do with Poland and the Balkans is a story of hate going back so far that all truth is buried in myth. Perhaps the only way to find a reasonable view is to read several books from different sides and then (perhaps best from your own notes) try to sift through for some reality. However, the past and 20th century anti-Semitism of Poland (and Russia--and Germany and France and the U.S.A, etc.) is clear from the personal memories of many of us who saw F.D.R. force a boat loaded with Jews back to Germany to perish to appease the massive hatred of his supporters for Jews.
Then look at the lies Ambrose told to keep the money line open to the Eisenhower family. "Ike" had seen ample evidence of the camps, but refused to bomb the railroad bridges, and became a willing hand in the murder of thousands (with F.D.R's support). Then look at the books showing his "rage" when he came to a camp with Patton, acting as though he hadn't seen untold pictures of what was happening

This book has everything! If you think, for instance, that Poles refuse to ever admit any wrongdoing, you will be disappointed, as Piotrowski has an entire chapter on Polish collaborators (along with corresponding chapters on the collaborators of other nationalities). He also discusses the genocidal murder of some 100,000 innocent Polish civilians by the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) during World War 2. To say that this was a "war of liberation" of "Ukrainian lands" from "Polish colonialism" is a falsification of history. Fact is, these lands have had a mixed Polish-Ukrainian population for centuries, if not from antiquity. And to say that this was retaliation for the treatment of Ukrainians in interwar Poland is ludicrous in the extreme. In fact, the grand total of Ukrainian nationalists put to death during Polish rule (for acts of murder) comes out to a grand total of 29. And acts of Polish discrimination against individual Ukrainians have no moral or tactical parallel whatsoever with the systematic murder of 100,000 Polish civilians by Ukrainian fascists.

Piotrowski tells the story of Ukrainian Nationalist's campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Polish minority in Volhynia. He provides both personal testimonies and hard sources as evidence. Still, a lot has to be written to explain the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) quest for racial purity and Ukraine without "the Moscovite, the Pole, and the Jew". Let this book be a warning for those who attempt to falsify the history of Ukraine by glorifying "ethnic cleansers" and make national heroes out of them.

This book provides a county-by-county accounting of the OUN-UPA's genocide directed against the Poles in German-occupied Volhynia. But, far from being chauvinistic, this book is scrupulous in avoiding placing the blame on all Ukrainians. To the contrary: much attention is paid to Ukrainians who were murdered for assisting the Poles or merely for advocating good Polish-Ukrainian relations. Furthermore, this book also acknowledges past Polish wrongs against Ukrainians, such as the prewar interference with the Ukrainian Church, although these wrongs have no parallel with the Ukrainian nationalists' genocide directed against innocent Polish civilians. Warning: The abject cruelty and savagery of the Ukrainian nationalists is very graphically described, and reading this book is definitely not for the fainthearted.

The former Polish province of Wolyn, which is the scene of the Ukrainian Nationalist campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Poles documented by the author, was an area that was populated by 350 thousand Poles before 1939 that made up barely 17% of the population. This percentage was highly reduced by the Soviet deportations during 1940-1941. In 1943 the Poles of Wolyn were subjected to the genocide committed by the Ukrainian Nationalists. This genocide took the form of attacking defensless villages at the most unexpected moment. People were slain at night, at the break of dawn or during prayer at the local church on Sunday. These attacks were as a rule accompanied by tortures of the utmost barbarity: hacking people with axes, eye gauging, pulling out of tongues and throwing people into wells were a common occurrence.The excellent book by T. Piotrowski consists of two parts. In the first one the children rescued from this genocide tell the story of the extended helpful hand that came from ordinary Ukrainians. As the author writes: Every act of kindness came at great personal risk- yet the rescues continued. In the second part of the book one can find documentation from different archives that proves beyond any doubt that the act of genocide was prepared and conducted by the OUN, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist. The planned character of the crimes is definitively confirmed by the sources provided. I congratulate the author on his work!