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Product 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.
About the Author
Born in 1919, Lucjan Krolikowski survived a Siberian concentration camp, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1946, and led a band of 146 orphaned war children from a refugee camp in Africa on an adventure to find a new home in Canada. Father Lucjan lives and works in Chicopee, MA.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Stolen Childhood,
By A Customer
This review is from: Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children (Paperback)
This book tells the moving and not very well known true story of theillegal deportation of approximately 1.7million Polish people from EasternPoland during WW2 by Soviet forces. It describes the modern day term ofethnic cleansing of a population on a masive scale. It focuses on theefforts to save a large proportion of children made orphans by theexecution and death of their parents and how they survived their grim andtrying ordeal of survival in the wastes of the USSR. Following theirrelease they made their way with great diificulty to where the Polish Armyunder General Anders was forming in the USSR, before being allowed toleave for Iran and Iraq. From there it focuses on the various places thatthese refugees found shelter throughout the free world and in particularin East Africa, especially Tanganyka, now known as Tanzania. The effortsmade to help these children and others recover from their traumas andexperiences are very well described and how a sense of normality wasestablished whilst living in an alien African environment. It describes ingreat detail the conflict that arose as the Polish Communist Governmentsought to make this group of orphans be returned to an oppressive regimeand how they were helped and guided to make their way via Europe, to afree life in Canada, with the help in particular of the author, a priest.This book was brought to my attention by my own mother who sufferedsimilar experiences, and lived with them and shared their experiencesespecially in being deported to the USSR and living in the refugee camp inTengeru, Tanganyka. I would say it is a good read for people of Polishorigin like myself, as well as for those interested in how people survivein great adversity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good chronology of Polish orphans,
By Lisa Avant - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children (Paperback)
This book was very informative and especially interesting because my husband's parents were part of this transplantation of Polish refugees. They were treated horribly by the Russians and I am embarassed that we (the Allies) did nothing about it. But then, war was war, and refugees were a fact of life.
Although this book was written many years ago it helps to keep us focused on the fact that the Jews were not the only ones trampled on during the war at the hands of Hitler; the Poles were trampled on at the hands of the Allies. 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can feel the emotion,
By Penguin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children (Paperback)
I read this book when my Mother mentioned that it described her childhood. She was one of the orphans who lived through this saga. She was in tears reading it because it brought back so many good and bad memories. I was in tears realizing what my Mother went through. The details explained so much to me about why my Mother does certain things in the way that she does...like ironing sheets because that was the only way to kill the bugs on the sheets in Africa. This is a well written saga - almost a diary for my Mom.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tear Jerker,
By Art2700 - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stolen Childhood: A Saga of Polish War Children (Paperback)
I was impressed with the realistic quality of Krolikowski's story telling. He weaves in beautiful scenery and then covers many aspects of events including the mudane difficult life and many horrible, shocking events, as well as describing some political motives behind some events, and estimating the number of people affected and Soviet strategy to make it difficult to find and/or count everybody. A very emotional read for me. Everybody knows about Soviet troops waiting at the gates of Warsaw and allowing the Nazis to slaughter the Polish people, but this story about deportations to the outermost regions of the Soviet Union resulting in more than a million Polish deaths and 380,000 orphans, some of whom journey, impossibly, to far-flung primitive regions of British colonial Africa, is a must read.
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