Wanda's war : an untold story of Nazi Europe, forced labour, and a Canadian immigration scandal / Marsha Faubert.
Wanda's war : an untold story of Nazi Europe, forced labour, and a Canadian immigration scandal / Marsha Faubert.
By
:
Faubert, Marsha.
Publication Date
:
2023
Publication Information
:
Fredericton, N.B. : Goose Lane,
Physical Description
:
254 p. : ill., map.
Subject Term
:
Immigrants.
Immigrants -- Canada -- Biography.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscript labor -- Germany.
Geographic Term
:
Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945.
Bibliography Note
:
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary
:
What does it mean to be exiled? For the landmarks of your past to disappear? In 1943, Wanda Gizmunt was ripped from her family home in Poland and deported to a forced labour camp in Nazi Germany. At the end of the war, she became one of millions of displaced Europeans awaiting resettlement. Unwilling to return to then-Soviet-occupied Poland, Wanda became one of 100 young Polish women brought to Canada in 1947 to address a labour shortage at a Quebec textile mill. But rather than arriving to long-awaited freedom, the women found themselves captives to their Canadian employer. Their treatment eventually became a national controversy, prompting scrutiny of Canada's utilitarian immigration policy. Wanda seized the opportunity to leave the mill in the midst of a strike in 1948. She never looked back, but she remained silent about her wartime experience. Only after her death did her daughter-in-law assemble the pieces of Wanda's life in Poland, Nazi Germany, and finally, Canada. In this masterful account of a hidden episode of history, Faubert chronicles both Wanda's life story--from Poland to Nazi labour camps and immigration to Canada--and the tragedy of exile and the meaning of silence for those whose traumas were never fully recognized.
Language
:
English
ISBN
:
9781773102757
Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number |
---|
Lewisporte | Adult NFic | Adult Non-Fiction | 943.805 F27 |
Mount Pearl - Ross King Memorial Public Library | Adult NFic | Adult Non-Fiction | 943.805 F27 |
St. John's - A.C. Hunter | Adult NFic | Adult Non-Fiction | 943.805 F27 |