Exiled to Siberia: A Polish Child's WWII Journey

by Klaus Hergt

September 1, 1939, promised to be another beautiful late summer day. Hank slowly walked to his aunt's house for one of her treats anxiously awaiting her call to come in. Already the smell of boiling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970043201
• ISBN13: 9780970043207
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Crescent Lake Publishing
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Exiled to Siberia

This is a wonderfull book. Hank is my godfather and I had never heard his story before I read the book. I always thought my uncle was an amazing man but this proved it. The hardships he endured and lose of his family were horrible but he is a very spiritual person who does not hold thing against people. He didn't let what happen to him change him. I am very proud of him.

Forgotten History

When I initially read this book just after it was published I called the author and thanked him for writing the book. Most of my mother's family was killed in Ark Angel, Russia and my mother grandmother, and great-aunt were all interned in many of the same places that were described in the book. It is well researched and should be necessary reading for all school aged children. it is both inspiring and educational.

Brings dark times and events vividly to life

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.

A facinating perspective on a heartbreaking story

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.