"Children in Exile"

I just came from seeing a polish documentary film about children who were taken to Siberia and survived to tell their stories. The producer Chris Swider was present as well as one of "the children" Wesley (Wieslaw) Adamczyk. There was a discussion after the movie and we talked to Wesley, an elderly man now, of course. It was so very moving. The audience was in tears when he got to tell his story. We all know about monuments built for soldiers as war heroes, but what about the children...

I was impressed that most of the audience was American, there were African Americans, Mexicans and others, clearly not polish based on the accent, asking questions about the survival. This short movie was shown at many documentary festivals in different parts of the world.

If you have a chance to see it, do it.

http://www.chicagodocfestival.org/children_exile.htm

Thanks.

It must be remembered that many Poles were dissatisfied after the Second World War and wanted reunification with their socialist brothers in the East. Stalin arranged free travel to allow all those who wanted, the chance of a new and better life in the Soviet union. It has to be remembered also that Poland was in the middle of turmoil then and could not support all its people without the kind assistance of the Russian people who had after all, endured years of harsh conditions themselves.

Too bad "the kind assistance" always happened in the middle of the night and the chosen ones were sent on a month long , "luxurious" journey on the train to a remote resorts in Siberia, where a seven year old was expected to chop wood at minus 35C below...
The father of the documentary director was also kindly shot in Katyn.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?