Eduvigia T Ancaya

Stefan's Journey on the Road of Sorrows Eduvigia T Ancaya

Stefan Orzechowski is happily vacationing in southeastern Poland with his family when news on the radio tells of an imminent invasion from the west by Nazi German forces. A reserve officer in the Polish Army, Stefan rushes his wife and children home to Lodz before he joins up with his unit. Unprepared, with scarce armament, and no transport trucks, they march towards Warsaw, unaware of a simultaneous invasion from the Soviet Red Army in the east. Outnumbered and out of ammunition, surrender is their only option. Thus begins a long journey on a road of sorrows, as Stefan is sent to a Gulag near the Arctic Circle with only the thin uniform on his back. Tortured and enslaved, starvation and illness are constant companions. Stefan and other Polish prisoners are released when Hitler turns on Stalin, forming a new Polish Army. From Russia and Ukraine to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, to the Middle East under British rule, and finally to the formidable battles across Italy, Stefan holds on to the hope of returning home. But where will "home" be when Churchill and Roosevelt have simply handed Poland over to Stalin? And how will he find his wife and children-or help them escape a Communist regime? This is a memoir of determination, fortitude, and faith, written by Stefan's daughter from a series of interviews before his death at age ninety-seven. How one remarkable man endures unimaginable horror and comes to revere life and love is a testament to the strength of the Polish people. Readers may also want to read the story of how Stefan's wife, Marta, survives Nazi and Soviet occupation, protecting her children at extreme cost, in "Struggle for Freedom: Marta's Courage-A Memoir".