Overview

It is 1938, and Poland is on the cusp of war. Stefania, a thirty-one-year-old peasant farmer, laughs with a rare, cautious joy. As a gypsy had predicted when Stefania was twelve, her arranged marriage to Kazimierz Bednarski, twenty-three, has borne fruit. She is pregnant. But her happiness is fleeting ... Poles Apart is initially told through the eyes of one seemingly ordinary Polish peasant woman, Stefania, as she battles to survive WWII. This is interwoven with flashbacks to her childhood, connecting love across generations. Her daughter's voice builds from a whisper beside her mother's, until she alone narrates the story to its end. A devout Catholic and romantic, Stefania's greatest desire was to marry and raise a family. Her life quickly spirals downwards as she contends with disappointments, separation and then heartbreaking tragedy and murder following the rise of Hitler and her transportation to a German labour camp. In Stefania's darkest moments, the worst of humanity contrasts starkly with compassion from the most unlikely quarter, leading to the birth of Janina and the struggle to ensure her daughter's survival. The end of the war presents a series of new challenges and fortuitous mistakes which lead to Stefania, Janina and their small family journeying across the world to start a new life. Poles Apart is deeply influenced by the calamity of war and the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by individuals on both sides of a conflict. It is the imperfect nature of the main characters that is honest and relatable. Having lost control over their lives, their stoic resistance to adversity and even death elicits courage, discipline and justice. This perseverance was vital to the Bednarski's survival, and despite their enduring burden of grief, is why they were able to forge a fulfilled and happy life post-war.

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9781764466707

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On October 6, 1943, at the height of the second world war, Janina was born on a German prison farm. Her parents, Stefania and Kazimierz Bednarski, were amongst the millions who were displaced and traumatised by the conflict. Janina's earliest years were shaped by the instability and deprivation of postwar Europe. In 1950, her family journeyed to Western Australia and eventually the small farming community of Gnowangerup. Here Janina and her family overcame numerous challenges to forge a life for themselves in the country they now gratefully called home. While still at school, Janina worked for several local businesses before taking a position as a nursing assistant at the Gnowangerup District Hospital. In 1964, she married Glen Parker, a local farmer. She worked alongside her husband on their farm until their retirement. Janina's life reflects the complex intersections of war, migration, faith and family. Her remarkable story has been shared for decades with those who know her, offering a personal lens through which to better understand that turbulent period of history. Through Poles Apart, her story is now available to all. Janina has been blessed with more than sixty years of marriage to her husband, Glen. They share four children, thirteen grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren (at last count). Janina and Glen now reside in the coastal city of Mandurah, where her days are filled with entertaining, gardening, arranging flowers for her church and playing cards - ordinary rituals that belie an extraordinary life. Sonia Perry is the eldest child of Janina and Glen Parker. Born in Gnowangerup in 1964, she grew up on her parents' farm and was educated locally before completing her schooling at Santa Maria College. She has been married to her husband, Adrian, for over thirty years and they have three children and three grandchildren. Sonia has worked in nursing for over forty years and remains closely connected to family and community life. She enjoys camping, hiking, gardening and caring for her grandchildren. In July 2016, Sonia began working with her mother to document her mother's life story. Over the following year, she conducted in-depth interviews with her parents and undertook archival research at the Battye State Library, assembling personal testimony alongside historical records. In 2018, Sonia and Adrian travelled to Poland to reconnect with extended family and to verify key details of the family's wartime and post war experiences. During their visit they clarified names, dates and locations by visiting Sonia's grandmother's church and family gravesites and examining the parish register containing official family records. While in Germany, they located and visited the Bednarski's British zone displaced persons camp. Over the following years, Sonia moulded her mother's recollections and short stories into a nonfiction narrative memoir, Poles Apart. This three-book series brings together oral history, archival research and lived experience to preserve a family story shaped by war, displacement and migration.

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