THROUGH HELL TO FREEDOM
G. James from Hampshire wrote:
''Through Hell to Freedom'' is a fascinating account of one man's journey.
If you have any interest in biographies, history, south Wales, Welsh Italians or human interest, then this book has it all.
It is amazing to think that Julian is still smiling after all that he has been through.
Lots of chapters make this a lovely book to read, although if you're an avid book reader like me, you will find it hard to put down.
I understand the illustrations in the book were done by the author's brother based on Julian's descriptions and they bring another human element to the story.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
by G. James
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Robert King wrote:
"Through Hell to Freedom" is Laurence Macpherson Jones' first book.
It is a biography of Julian Bester, a Pole and a Joseph Stalin camp internee.
Books that reminisce about the dark days of WW 2 abound and they need to carry that extra ingredient, which makes the production of them into book form viable. This one certainly does. It relates in graphic detail and horror that Stalin's slave camps conferred on those incarcerated.
Julian's story, told by Macpherson Jones with pathos is one of ultimate survival, literally living from a mouthful of food to the unpredictability of when the next mouthful will come. This is coupled with the freezing conditions on the Volga River, where the internees were detailed to fell trees. The quest to carry on to the next day was a minute by minute fight.
Heart-wrenching stories of family, friends and colleagues dying nearby would in other times generate aggression and resistance, but such conditions and circumstances have to be experienced to realise the absolute hopelessness that people found themselves in. Nevertheless, the story is told with a degree of humour and hope. Julian is a devout Roman Catholic and didn't lose his faith.
Along with thousands of other Polish nationals who were forcibly removed from their country. Julian and his family were removed from their small farm in 1940, where the horrors of internment are graphically retold. This state lasted some 2 years, when, there has to be a degree of irony. Russia became an ally of the British, as the early war years unfolded. Julian, following his release volunteered for the newly formed Polish Second Corps, which was under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders. He went though an intensive course of training in the Middle East and fought in many battles in Italy. This section of the book is told at white heat and the endurance and courage of Julian and people like him is breathtaking.
After 1945, he settled in West Wales, working for the local authority in Llandeilo, where he met his wife to be. The story doesn't lose its interest, despite now dealing with the more mundane aspects of life in secure, peaceful, Wales. Julian is one of those people that 'things happen to'!
He became the main prosecution witness in a murder trial in 1954; following that, he moved with his new wife to Neath, working in the construction industry.
Unusually, the book has a second dimension to the story. We are told about the family's link to the ill-fated liner 'Arandora Star' which was sunk in July 1940 following a strike by a German U-boat. The ship's last voyage was carrying Italians and other 'suspect' nationals to an internment camp in Canada. Julian's future father-in-law was fortunate not to have been on the ship.
Julian is now 83 years of age and an active member of St. Josephs parish at Neath.
This book is highly readable and recommended.
by Robert King
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Robbie Robinson wrote:
This book details the biography of Julian Bester, a native of Poland from his birth in the village of Rogozno in Poland in 1925 to his retirement in Neath in 1990. Julian was taken captive by the Russians in 1940, together with the inhabitants of three villages in Polish Ukraine and sent in railway wagons to one of the many labour camps, known as Gulags, in Western Russia and Siberia.
Considerable prominence has been given to the cruel, racial policies of Hitler and Goebbels and rightly so, but less attention has been given to the policies of Joseph Stalin. Yet the programs conducted in his name, started incredibly in the 1930's when millions of poor peasant families across Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the adjoining Soviet Central Republics starved to death, following theft by Russian criminal gangs encouraged by the N.K.V.D. of the food including precious grain produced in this fertile farming area.
The period was infamously known as : 'The Terror'
These experiences, as related to Laurence Macpherson Jones of Neath, the author of "Through Hell to Freedom", indicate that Stalin's ruthlessness was not confined to Poles captured after the fall of Poland in September 1940 and the annexation by Germany and Russia. After the breakup of the Axis, he was equally disposed to using Russian men and women as cannon fodder by sending them to their deaths in suicide attacks against overwhelming German forces. The invading erstwhile Allies were better equipped and commanded and mowed down the Russian soldiers in their futile assaults.
But perhaps the most prominent atrocity was committed in August 1944, following the uprising of the Polish Underground Army in Warsaw. The all-
conquering Red Army was virtually at the gates of the city and encouraged the Poles to take on the occupying German forces, promising to advance and fight alongside the resistance fighters. But the support never came and despite the Poles bravely holding out for 63 days, in two terrible days in October between 20,000 and 50,000 Warsaw civilians were slaughtered. The elderly, children, even babies were killed in an orgy of drink-fuelled sadism.
In the period of Lent in particular it is not for us or anyone to be judgmental, but how long will the memories of this last century last and who had drawn guidance from them which will ensure that it will never happen again?
Perhaps those haunting words given in agony :
'Watch and pray' may help.
The Bookworm
by Robbie Robinson for the Parish Magazines of Llangennith,
Llanmadoc and Cheriton parishes, Gower, Wales
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Sister Mary Joseph wrote:
This book is about the wartime experiences and the later life of a remarkable 83 year-old Catholic parishioner, who lives in Neath. Its subtitle describes it as 'The astonishing life story of Julian Bester, farmer, slave labourer, soldier and builder - as told to Laurence Macpherson Jones'.
Older people will remember the Polish immigrants who came to Wales after the war. They had all endured extreme suffering. Many had been in Stalin's Siberian labour camps or Hitler's concentration camps. They had seen friends, neighbours and family members killed without mercy. Though the Allies had been victorious, their homeland was now occupied by another enemy.
Paradoxically, Hitler's prolonged but doomed attack on Russia saved the lives of thousands of those in Siberian exile, because Stalin released them to fight for him. That is how Julian survived,though his hardships continued. After a brief stay in the Middle East, he went on to fight serious battles, including Monte Cassino.For those who do not remember why so many Poles settled in Wales and elsewhere in Britain, America and Australia, the explanation is that the end of the war agreement between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at Yalta, had simply sold Poland down the river. With their country in Stalin's grip, those Polish serviceman and women faced certain death if they returned there. When this was realised, the Western Allies 'resettled' them and their government-in-exile stayed on in London, until Poland regained its freedom.
Julian's life story is told by Laurence Macpherson Jones. This is his first book, but it is compelling and anyone in Wales who has known a Pole or an Italian of that wartime generation will be able to relate to it. The story is told from the heart and not without humour. Describing just one of his many escapes from death, Julian says 'Thankfully, my name couldn't have been on the bullets that day!'. When he discusses the question 'Who was the worst tyrant, Stalin or Hitler?' Julian answers with Polish realism 'Stalin- Hitler only killed his enemies!'
This tale will fascinate the general reader and will be of great interest to our Italian Catholic community in Wales. It also throws new light on two murders in the Llandeilo area, one of which has been the subject of a film. Like Rudolph Olewicz (of Ffairfach and Aberystwyth) - the author of 'A Polish Soldier's Story' and Marian Tyszkiewicz (who wrote 'Spirit of Youth'), Julian went on from his terrible experiences to live life to the full. Each of these writers has overcome despair- and know how their Catholic faith has helped them on the journey. It is worth mentioning that Marian Tyszkiewicz's book (she lives in Cardiff) is now used as a resource for history courses in Polish schools and I would like to think that Julian's book could be used in a similar way in Wales.
This is a book with a compelling story, which I can definitely recommend for purchase and I would like to say ' Thank you' to Julian for sharing these extraordinary life experiences with us and to Laurence, for bringing them to a wider audience. by Sister Mary Joseph
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