A Polish woman's experience in World War II: conflict, deportation and exile

Table of content

List of Maps
Foreword (by Professor Robert Evans)
1. Prologue (by Hubert Zawadzki)

Part I – 1910-1939
2. Chapter 1: Wars and Reconstruction (1914-1925)
3. Chapter 2: Education, Home, and the Stirrings of Love
4. Chapter 3: All Not Quiet in the Distant Provinces
5. Chapter 4: Warsaw: Relatives, Love, and a Brush with Dangerous Politics
6. Chapter 5: Waclaw Protassewicz: The Last Squire of Borki
7. Chapter 6: Before the Storm

Part II – 1939-1945
8. Introduction to Part II (by Hubert Zawadzki)
9. Chapter 7: 'The End of Our World'
10. Chapter 8: Under Soviet Occupation (1939-1941)
11. Chapter 9: Siberia
12. Chapter 10: Joys and Sorrows in Central Asia
13. Chapter 11: From Persia to the Holy Land
14. Chapter 12: From Egypt to Scotland

Part III – 1945-2015 (by Hubert Zawadzki)
15. Epilogue: Exile and Settlement in Britain
16. Postscript
Appendix A – Guide to Polish Pronunciation
Appendix B – Family Tree

This hitherto unpublished first-hand witness account, written in 1968-9, tells the story of a privileged Polish woman whose life was torn apart by the outbreak of the Second World War and Soviet occupation. The account has been translated into English from the original Polish and interwoven with letters and depositions, and is supplemented with commentary and notes for invaluable historical context.
Irena Protassewicz's vivid account begins with the Russian Revolution, followed by a rare insight into the life and mores of the landed gentry of northeastern Poland between the wars, a rural idyll which was to be shattered forever by the coming of the Second World War. Deported in a cattle truck to Siberia and sentenced to a future of forced labour, Irena's fortunes were to change dramatically after Hitler's attack on Russia. She charts the adventure and horror of life as a military nurse with the Polish Army, on a journey that would take her from the wastes of Soviet Central Asia, through the Middle East, to an unlikely ending in the highlands of Scotland. The story concludes with Irena's search to discover the wartime and post-war fate of her family and friends on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and the challenges of life as a refugee in Britain.
A Polish Woman's Experience in World War II provides a compelling, personal route into understanding how the greatest conflict of the 20th century transformed the lives of the individuals who lived through it.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/a-polish-womans-experience-in-world-war-ii-9781350178090/