Description
Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of World War II, more than 4,500 Polish veterans, displaced by war and the Soviet-oriented Polish government, were resettled in Canada as farm workers; 750 of these men were accepted by the province of Alberta. Polish War Veterans in Alberta examines how these former soldiers came to experience their new country and its sometimes-harsh postwar realities. This compelling work of social history is brought to life through the words and stories of four veterans, whose remembrances provide an intimate first-hand look at a moment of Canada’s past that is at risk of being forgotten.
Trade Review"At war’s end some 250,000 Polish veterans were stranded in Europe. Returning home was a ticket to the Soviet Gulag.... Author Jaworska is a passionate writer. Her interviews with survivors are compelling. Polish War Veterans In Alberta has a melancholy quality...with a very human ending." Holly Doan, Blacklock's Reporter, April 13, 2019 [Full review at https://www.blacklocks.ca/book-review-men-without-a-country/]
“Jaworska’s book is a most timely and needed publication that serves as a welcome explanation of the origin of the post World War II Polish arrivals to the Great Plains….Careful reading of these stories of exile and military service collected by Jaworska would greatly increase Canadian awareness of the background of the Polish immigrants of the mid-1940s… [Polish War veterans in Alberta] is well organized and an engrossing read .” Anna Mazurkiewicz, Great Plains Quarterly, Winter-Spring, 2022.
“Jaworska has excelled in preparing these histories of the wartime and postwar lives of these four brave men…The book will appeal both to scholars and lay readers interested in learning from first-hand accounts about the Polish perspective on the most destructive war in history and about an almost forgotten time in Canada’s immigration history.” Michal Mlynarz, Canadian Slavonic Papers, 14 Feb 2022.
#10 on the Calgary Non-fiction Bestsellers list, June 15, 2023
Table of ContentsI Polish World War II Veterans 1 From Citizens to Prisoners 2 From Prisoners to Soldiers 3 From Soldiers to Stateless Immigrants 4 The Immigrant as Ethnic 5 Polish Veterans and Canadian Veterans: A Comparison II Polish War Veterans’ Stories 6 Interviewing the Veterans 7 Anatol (Tony) Nieumierzycki (1923–2017) 8 Władysław (Walter) Niewiński (1918–2012) 9 Zbigniew (Leo) Rogowski (1927–) 10 Stefan Koselak (1921–1960) III From Victory to Sorrow 11 Understanding the Polish War Veterans’ Experiences
