Between Two Evils
The World War II Memoir of a Girl in Occupied Warsaw and a Nazi Labor Camp
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About the Book
This vivid memoir describes the author’s experiences as young girl in Poland, forced to flee to Warsaw after the Nazi bombing of Brest at the outbreak of World War II. She recounts the realities of life in occupied Poland, including the arrest by the Gestapo of her father and his death soon after in Auschwitz, the family’s participation in the black market and the Warsaw Uprising, and her capture and incarceration with her mother in a forced labor camp. Once released from the camp, they joined their Russian relatives in Austria only to quickly leave with them to avoid approaching Soviet forces, experiencing a month-long, often comical journey on an ox-driven cart back to the U.S. zone of Germany.
About the Author(s)
Bibliographic Details
Lucyna B. Radlo
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 267
Bibliographic Info: 65 photos, appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4032-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5232-3
Imprint: McFarland
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. War: Choosing Between Two Evils 3
2. Flashbacks 7
Life at Krasnyy Dvor 10
1914–1918 13
Vyazma 14
Return to Brest 16
Life in Brest, 1921 18
1931–1936 30
Brest, 1936–1939 36
Brest, 1939, on the Eve of World War II 50
3. Occupied Warsaw 52
4. Coping with Daily Life 66
5. Father Dies in Auschwitz 75
6. My Father, Feliks Stanislaw Kucharski 88
7. Handel (Black Marketing) 94
8. Warsaw Uprising, August 1, 1944 104
9. Forced Labor Camp 111
10. Kleine Maria Zell, Austria 120
11. Flight from the Soviets 123
12. Via Oxcart to Regensburg 133
13. Back to School 137
14. Obshchina 140
15. “Save Me, Tante Luzie!” 143
16. Live Fish and Dead Bones 150
17. “Quanta la Gusta” 156
18. A Girl’s Best Friend 164
19. America Bound! 175
20. Nazareth 182
21. Little Russia, New Jersey 185
22. Work in the City 193
23. 1528 Second Avenue, New York City 198
24. Getting to Know the Radlos 206
25. Elizabeth Kucharska, My Mother 227
26. Married Life Begins 240
Appendix: Who’s Who in the Extended Romenko-Kovenko Family 253
Index 255
