Waiting to be Heard: The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955 [Paperback]

Bogusia J. Wojciechowska (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2009

Waiting to be Heard is the voice of the persecuted, the brave, the hopeful, the betrayed and the determined. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and to a generation that did not see itself as 'victims,' but as 'survivors.' Studies of the War and post-War years have traditionally focused on political and military history. In recent years there has been a greater interest in the social consequences of the War. Nevertheless, discussions relating to the displacement of the Polish-born usually focus on the Holocaust interpreted as a Jewish-only phenomenon. Yet, in the years 1939-45, Poland lost 6, 029, 000, or 22%, of its total population, including approximately 3 million of its Christian residents. Many of those who survived the War, at its conclusion, were scattered all over the world; by the end of 1945, 249, 000 members of the Polish Armed Forces were under British command, with 41, 400 dependants in the United Kingdom, Italy, East and South Africa, New Zealand, India, Palestine, Mexico and Western Germany. These refugees have long sought a voice for their experiences. The website, www.PolishDiaspora.net, was created in 2006 by Dr. Wojciechowska as a forum for their voices. The international deluge of interest in the project resulted in waiting to be Heard. While some participants had talked and written about their experiences before, the majority had not discussed their experiences with anyone outside their immediate social circle. And the memories are still painful, as exemplified by one participant who said, "God, I ask you; allow me to forget those days and weeks when I lay on piles of corpses in the hope of finding a tiny bit of warmth; allow me to forget the licking of ice from the walls of the cattle wagons; allow me to lose my memory of those years!"

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bogusia Wojciechowska is the daughter of two Poles who met in England in 1948. Her father, who had been in the Polish Army, did not want to go back to his home, near Lwow, as it was no longer a part of Poland. Some of his family had been deported to Siberia and had perished there. His own father, forcibly moved from the land inhabited by the family for generations, was living in Poland in poverty. Bogusia's mother, meanwhile, had lived in Warszawa until the end of the Uprising in 1944. Like so many of her family, she was taken to a concentration camp in Germany and, then, as a slave laborer to Austria. Some members of her family perished in German camps. Her determination to give recognition to the suffering of her parents' generation, a generation that has been marginalized in history for the sake of political expediency, led to this book. Waiting to be Heard is both a tribute and testament to that unheard generation. Bogusia has a BA in History and a MA in comparative Social History from the University of Warwick, England, and a PhD in Economic and Social History from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (September 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1449013716
• ISBN-13: 978-1449013714
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten History of WWII, September 17, 2009

By 

John Guzlowski (Danville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waiting to be Heard: The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955 (Paperback)

I first met Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska over the internet about five years ago. Someone sent me a note about her and her work, and I got in touch with her as soon as I read it.

She was working on an extensive research project to document the lives of Poles who were forced to leave Poland during World War II. This was a project that touched me directly. For years, I've try to find books that would tell me more about what happened to people like my parents who had been rounded up by the Germans and taken to the slave labor and concentration camps in Germany. What I found surprised me. Beyond Richard C. Lukas's excellent Forgotten Holocaust there weren't many such books, and his book in fact didn't tell me what I wanted to know about the lives of the Poles who were taken to German and those -- like my Uncle Jan -- who were taken to Siberia.

It seemed that what my mom once said was true. They don't make books about people like us.

Dr. Wojciechowska's project has attempted to change that. Over the years, as a historian, she devoted herself to chronicling the experiences of those who were forced to leave Poland. Her website -- The Polish Diaspora -- has been an essential source of information about those experiences. Now, she has edited a book that brings together much of her research about the lives of those who were taken from Poland during the war.

If my mom were to see the book Waiting to Be Heard, she would probably say, "At last, here's a start."

John Guzlowski, Author of Lightning and Ashes

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Waiting To Be Heard, November 21, 2009

By 

Karen Oates (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waiting to be Heard: The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955 (Paperback)

Haunting personal accounts of events the reader will not easily forget. This book is aptly named - I for one wish to tell all those interviewed that I heard them.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pray For Them, Never Forget Them, December 1, 2009

By 

William H. Szych "Lt Col, USAF Retired" (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Waiting to be Heard: The Polish Christian Experience Under Nazi and Stalinist Oppression 1939-1955 (Paperback)

This is a very important work. What happened to Poland during the 20th century was so terrible and so traumatic that the world just wants to forget about it and move forward. But the most amazing thing is that although Poland was ruthlessly decimated in WWI, in WWII, and then dominated by the Soviets until 1990, the Polish nation is now alive and thriving again.

Over 200 years ago, Polish officers and men came to America to help fight for our independence and serve the cause of freedom. Now, Polish officers and men and women stand with us in Afghanistan like they have in Iraq and once again, in the tradition of Pulaski and Kosciuszko, proven with their courage and honor and blood that Poland is one of our biggest supporters and defenders of freedom. Let us do everything we can to help Poland continue its recovery from the 20th century nightmare and to help it take its long delayed place among the most prosperous of Nations. This would be the only thing that would help re-assure those who have been "waiting to be heard" that all they went through and all that they lost will never be forgotten.