Journeys to Survival

PREFACE

How do ordinary citizens survive the devastation of war when it arrives on their own soil?  These are the true stories of three women whose destiny was changed forever when their lives and homelands were shattered by invasion.  Each found the strength to reach inside and pick up the pieces.  Each discovered the resilience and courage to reclaim her life in a better way.

Relevant  history of World War II has been included to help the reader better understand the reality of war and its impact on actual families as they struggled to survive invasion, deportation and destruction.

MARYSIA’S JOURNEY begins with her deportation from Eastern Poland to a collective farm in Siberia.  Based on Mary Prokopik Scherer’s Memoir and interviews.

ANNEDORE of DENIED ENTRANCE was refused admittance to Silesia, her homeland at war’s end, since this area of Eastern Germany had been given to Poland.  At a young age she is without a home or country.  Based on a diary and writings by Annedore Bierwagen Woehler.

WIESIA, WOMAN OF HOPE reveals a firsthand picture of life in Poland, when the country becomes a Communist Satellite after World War II.  She is dangerously involved with the Solidarity Movement as it is born and flourishes.  Based on interviews with Wiesia Krzyzanowska Staszkiewicz and Daria Staszkiewicz Helfrich.