Głos Polonii w USA | The Voice of Polonia in the USA | Styczeń 2021

14 STYCZEŃ
2021
One Star Away. Imogena Salva
KSIĄŻKI
“Kiedy dzisiejszy świat wykrzykuje hasła takie jak „równość”, „integracja”
i „sprawiedliwość”, wielką obrazą jest to, że świat nigdy nie zwrócił
się o sprawiedliwość dla kraju, który poniósł najwięcej strat i zniszczeń
podczas wojny. Polska ucierpiała z powodu odmowy bycia sojusznikiem
Związku Radzieckiego i Niemiec, dwóch krajów z planami eksterminacji
i unicestwienia. To niesprawiedliwe, że Wielka Brytania i Ameryka nie
włączyły tego fragmentu historii do swoich podręczników i ukryły prawdę.
Badając ten temat, natknęłam się na tysiące stron odtajnionych dokumentów
z 2012 roku, ujawniających, jak Franklin D. Roosevelt i Winston
Churchill zatuszowali dowody dotyczące zbrodni katyńskiej, w której
ponad 22 tysiące polskich oficerów wojskowych i intelektualistów zostało
zamordowanych przez NKWD i wrzuconych do masowych grobów.
Chociaż ludobójstwo zostało prawnie wyodrębnione jako nowy rodzaj
międzynarodowej zbrodni przez Konwencję o Ludobójstwie z 1948 r.,
do chwili obecnej żaden rząd nigdy nie oskarżył Związku Radzieckiego
o żadne zbrodnie wojenne, a rząd rosyjski nigdy nie przeprosił za swoją
ludobójczą działalność na Polakach. Polacy nie otrzymali żadnej rekompensaty
od swojego wschodniego agresora. Mam nadzieję, że One
Star Away pomoże uporządkować historię dotyczącą stalinowskiego
terroru i uznać krew i łzy moich rodaków. Tak ważnej części historii nie
można pogrzebać.”
Powyższy akapit jest częścią artykułu napisanego przez Imogenę
Salva na temat jej nowej książki pt. „One Star Away”. Książka jest piękną,
trzymającą w napięciu lekturą o trudach ludzkiego życia podczas
wysiedlenia Polaków na Syberię i ich dalszych losach w Indiach. Książka
napisana jest na faktach autentycznych przekazanych autorce przez jej
mamę, Ziutę Nowicki, która była jednym z dzieci dotkniętych tragedią
II Wojny Światowej. Mieliśmy okazję porozmawiać z Panią Imogeną na
temat jej najnowszej książki.
Głos Polonii: What inspired you
to write this story?
Imogena Salva: I was inspired
by the stories my mother told me
of her childhood. The fact that she
and her family lived through an
unimaginable nightmare during
WWII, has never ceased to amaze
me. As a child, I felt sorrow for their
sufferings, but I also felt a sense of
pride in my family’s history. I was
haunted by the courage, resilience
and sacrifices they endured. I realized
how important faith was in
their lives. Unfortunately, their story
was quite common among Poles.
Historians estimate the number
of Poles who were sent to Siberia
during WWII to be around 1.7 million.
I was astonished to learn in life
that this piece of history, which was
so personal to me, is so foreign to
the multitudes. Discussions with
seemingly well versed, educated
people commonly revealed ignorance
or lack of knowledge of these
atrocities of WWII. As horrific as
the Jewish Holocaust was, why is
that the main focus of WWII. Why
was the murder of so many more
millions of individuals under Stalin
not even mentioned? I felt inspired
to put to pen my mother’s story and
not let it fade away into the shadows
of history. I finally was also
inspired by “The Good Maharaja”
who personally invited hundreds
of Polish children to India under his
protective care. Through this book
I want to immortalize his example
of courage and compassion.
GP: Why did you choose to write
this book as a novel rather than
a documentary or memoire?
IS: There are a handful of marvelous
books written on this subject,
but they are written as history
books which I believe limits the audience.
I hoped a novel would be
more relatable and reach a larger
reader base. As I wrote, my goal was
for the reader to become invested
in the character’s lives; understanding
their thoughts and feelings,
fears and hopes in this dark period
of history. The novel is a recreation
of the true stories of my mother’s
childhood and the outline for the
book easily fell into place based
on the many stories she shared of
Poland, Siberia, and India. It felt
like the most natural approach to
recall her story as a novel weaving
history into each chapter, describing
settings and real-life events.
I believe a novel allows the reader
to connect with the characters on
an intimate level, cheering victories
and sharing fears and desires.
This format also allows the author
to introduce history in a kinder,
more gentle way than a history
book filled where the focus is stark
facts and figures. I hope readers
will be inspired to learn beyond
the novel and research the plight
of the Poles in Siberia after reading
this book. I think the storytelling
format stays with the reader, often
touching their hearts in an unexpected
way. If One Star Away can
stir the reader to feel compassion
for our fellow man, I will consider
my book a success.
GP: Who do you feel is your target
audience and why?
IS: My target audience is very
broad. During the process of writing,
I didn’t have a particular audience
in mind but the more I wrote,
I realized how important it is to me
that my own children know and
understand this history - not just
the stories of their grandmother
and her family but of all the Poles
who suffered at the hands of the
Russians. These thoughts quickly
expanded. It is imperative to
pass down this history for future
generations of Polish Americans,
specifically those whose ancestors
had been scattered to all the corners
of the world after losing their
territory in WWII. I would dare to
say that this story is of paramount
importance for everyone who seeks
truth and to expand their knowledge
about the plight of Poles from
the Eastern Borderlands or Kresy.
I think that this book is a good read
for anyone who is interested in
learning about WWII and by reading
it one will discover what Western
textbooks fail to mention.
GP: Because this is not your
own personal story, but the story
of your mother and her family,
what kind of research did you do
to be accurate in your story telling?
IS: Although I did not personally
live through my mother’s experiences,
her WWII odyssey was very
much a part of me. The stories of
her childhood were told and retold
to me a hundred times. As
years passed, my mother patiently
answered my budding questions.
Some evenings, we poured through
albums looking at pictures. Mom
filled in details from the photos
discussing friends, teachers, places
and activities. It was a wonderful
visual of putting puzzle pieces together.
Sometimes pictures would
spark a song or dance and she’d
teach those to me, right there in our
living room. So, I have to say this is
really the foundation of this book
and how the first seeds of inspiration
were planted. There was also
a great deal of travel, toil and study
that was done before the first word
was ever put to pen. Besides all my
mother’s stories I grew up with,
I interviewed my mother’s older
siblings numerous times. I read
several books about this subject
and interviewed the books’ authors.
I traveled all over Europe to
interview the survivors or “Sybiracy”.
I traveled throughout my life to
reunions of “Jamnagarczycy”, those
Poles who had spent 5-7 years in
the Balachadi camp in India. We
are, until the present moment,
one family. And finally, I traveled
with my mother to India in 2018
and met the Maharaja’s family and
interviewed his children. While
there, I not only immersed myself
in the Gujarati culture, but as well
as in the experiences of those Polish
children who survived the hellish
nightmare of Bolshevik communism
in the “Inhuman Land” and
reached India, which became their
“Promised Land.” Throughout my
life, my mother unknowingly gave
me the foundation to write One Star
Away. We spent many happy hours
in the kitchen as I learned to cook
Polish foods. She instilled my love
of Polish traditions and culture. She
taught loyalty to family and country
and an abiding love of God and the
importance of faith. She made sure
I understood these were the ways
of our family long before me, long
before her. It was what connected
me to the past, to the family I never
had the opportunity to meet who
had come and gone before me. And
she taught me never to forget who
I was and where I came from. Her
guidance reminds me to be generous
in time, love and patience in giving
these gifts to future generations.
GP: The story starts with your
mother having a discussion with
the Shah of Iran. How much of
this novel is fact and how much
is fiction?
IS: My mother was one of the
Shah’s nurses where he was treated
for cancer in New York hospital.
I was 15 years old in 1979 and
distinctly remember my mother
returning home from her night
shift at the Cornell Medical Center.
She was ecstatic and recounted
how thrilled she was to have the
honor of tending to Mohammah
Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran who
had been so generous to Poles
who were escaping Soviet Russia.
Thanks to him in a sense, my mother
and roughly 120,000 thousand
Poles were saved from Soviet GE-
HENNA. To answer the question,
yes, the book is definitely based
on true events of my mother’s life.
My editor and I took a bit of artistic
license in creating dialogue and in
moment-to-moment events, but
the whole of the book retells her
story.
GP: Your mother’s story is remarkable.
Was this something
she talked about as you were
growing up or did she keep
her past mostly to herself? As
an adult, looking back on your
childhood, do you think your
mother’s wartime experiences
shaped the way she parented you
and your sister? In what ways?
IS: Yes, she did talk about her life
and I was blessed she was willing
to tell the stories of her youth
with honesty and in a matter-offact
manner. She took the role of
family historian, passing down
stories to the next generation. She
never sought pity, but I do remember
complaining of walking to and
from school - a mile each way and
having to take a subway. My mother
looked at me and raised an eye-
Imogena writing the book