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When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption
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When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption Paperback - 2006

by Adamczyk, Wesley

  • Used
  • very good
  • Paperback

Adamczyk's gripping memoir revisits one of the most overlooked examples of humanity's dark side--the Soviet Union's brutal treatment of Polish citizens during and after World War II.

Description

USA: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Book. Very Good. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. crease down back cover..
Used - Very Good
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Details

  • Title When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption
  • Author Adamczyk, Wesley
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition First Edition
  • Condition Used - Very Good
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press, USA
  • Date 2006
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated, Maps, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 905914
  • ISBN 9780226004440 / 0226004449
  • Weight 1.03 lbs (0.47 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.86 x 6.46 x 0.74 in (22.50 x 16.41 x 1.88 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1940's
    • Cultural Region: Russian
  • Library of Congress subjects World War, 1939-1945, World War, 1939-1945 - Prisoners and
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

First line

Family members and neighbors sitting on the porch of our home in Sarny, Poland, 1935.

From the rear cover

Often overlooked in accounts of World War II is the Soviet Union's quiet yet brutal campaign against Polish citizens, a campaign that included, we now know, war crimes for which the Soviet and Russian governments only recently admitted culpability. Standing in the shadow of the Holocaust, this episode of European history is often overlooked. Wesley Adamczyk's gripping memoir, When God Looked the Other Way, now gives voice to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Soviet barbarism.

Adamczyk was a young Polish boy when he was deported with his mother and siblings from their comfortable home in Luck to Soviet Siberia in May of 1940. His father, a Polish Army officer, was taken prisoner by the Red Army and eventually became one of the victims of the Katyn massacre, in which tens of thousands of Polish officers were slain at the hands of the Soviet secret police. The family's separation and deportation in 1940 marked the beginning of a ten-year odyssey in which the family endured fierce living conditions, meager food rations, chronic displacement, and rampant disease, first in the Soviet Union and then in Iran, where Adamczyk's mother succumbed to exhaustion after mounting a harrowing escape from the Soviets. Wandering from country to country and living in refugee camps and the homes of strangers, Adamczyk struggled to survive and maintain his dignity amid the horrors of war.

When God Looked the Other Way is a memoir of a boyhood lived in unspeakable circumstances, a book that not only illuminates one of the darkest periods of European history but also traces the loss of innocence and the fight against despair that took root in one young boy. It is also a book that offers a stark picture of the unforgiving nature of Communism and its champions. Unflinching and poignant, When God Looked the Other Way will stand as a testament to the trials of a family during wartime and an intimate chronicle of episodes yet to receive their historical due.

About the author

Wesley Adamczyk is a retired chemist and tax consultant who lives in Illinois. He is also a champion bridge player.