A Gulag and Holocaust Memoir of Janina Sulkowska-Gladun

A Gulag and Holocaust Memoir is based on Janina Sulkowska’s book Wartime Memoirs, 1939-1949, published in Warsaw, 1998, and translated by her son Chris Gladun. Incorporated into this web site edition are articles published by Janina in Canada, the USA and England, as well as interviews with her by Chris. Janina’s introduction to her memoir was awarded second prize by The Foundation of Kazimierz F. Vincenz in Switzerland, and was included in the book entitled “My Collision with the Bolsheviks in 1939.” Additional accounts used here come from the writings of Wanda Sulkowska-Mysliwiec (Janina’s sister) based on her notebooks from Siberia. Further information comes from the memoirs of family members, including two hundred letters, a number of which are featured. My mother’s memoirs are on deposit with the Polish Library in England while other items are housed in the Museum of Independence (Siberian Collection) Warsaw. Sections from A Gulag and Holocaust Memoir, as adapted by Chris, have appeared in The Toronto Star, News of Polonia, and Miedzy Nami magazine, among others.

Janina was a university student when Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland in 1939. Her hometown suffered German bombings and occupation by the USSR, even as she and her family aided refugees. “Janka” joined the underground with friends, but in 1940 she was arrested by the NKVD, tortured and shipped to the Gulag. Her entire family would be deported to Siberia, and many relatives and friends suffered and died at the hands of the Soviets and Nazis. Janina’s award-winning memoir chronicles her amazing odyssey, starting with the invasion of Poland, as a prisoner in the outposts of the Gulag, her survival in the USSR and escape, and finally exile in India and England. Through all her trials, Janka was determined to find her scattered family and friends, and to tell the story of those whose voices had been silenced. My mother died in 1997, but I continue her quest.