About the Book

A first hand account of a Polish family’s experiences during the destruction of Poland by Hitler and Stalin as seen through the eyes of a feisty 14-year-old girl, Krystyna Stachowicz.

Krystyna lived through the deportations to Russia, the forced labor in the deep frozen forests of the Ural Mountains, and harsh working conditions in Uzbekistan. She lost her mother, Walentyna, to malaria, and her elder sister, Alice, is still missing.

She journeyed to an orphanage in Iran with her younger brothers and sister, and then joined the Polish Army in Exile where she became a nurse's aide and tended to the wounded at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Through it all, Krystyna survived and lived to tell the tale of her amazing experiences as a witness to the unprecedented struggles of the Polish people when they were left to fight alone against the Nazi and Communist threats to the free world.