Customer Reviews

Exiled to Siberia

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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.

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.

This is another WW II memoir of a Pole and his family's deportation to the depths of the USSR simply because they were Poles. I am not sure that it's that much different than those written by others (Adamczyk and Waydenfeld for example) except that each story of these times, of course, is unique. Interestingly, the protagonist of this memoir did not write it, rather it was written by a friend. As such, it is less of a dispassionare recounting of facts by he who experienced, and more of a story told about a good friend who Hergt admires and it definitely reads that way. The admiration that Hergt feels for Hank comes through and permeates his storytelling. His narration has a kind of authenticity and warmth that is highly engaging. It is obvious that Dr. Hergt spent a great deal of time researching this memoir, and he skillfully blends history of the time with Hank's memories. All in all it is an exceedingly well written book, perhaps not in the same category of When God Looked the Other Way or The Ice Road, but much better than most.

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.

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.