Overview

This book traces the life of Maria Mia Truskier, who fled the Nazis as a young Polish Jew in early 1940 and once safely resettled in the United States, became an activist for other refugees, earning renown in the Bay Area as “the oldest refugee” of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Mia worked for decades assisting those fleeing from war, violence and hardship, mainly from Central America and Haiti. Based on extensive interviews with Truskier before she passed away, as well as memorabilia from her own lifetime, including coded letters, newspaper clippings, and old photographs, this book results in a complex and multi-layered oral history. As Mia drew on memories of her life in Europe and World War II, she was situating and constructing those memories while re-reading and discovering these artifacts alongside the author of this book, and ultimately relating the ways that she and her family years later sought to make a difference for other refugees, drawing a connection between two major eras of human displacement: the end of World War II and today. 

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9783030845278

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Reviews

“This book is the biography of a remarkable woman, Maria Mia Truskier … . For readers … this book provides a unique insight into the method of oral history and the challenges it presents. … Meade has published an important book that tells the life story of a person … a biography of an unstoppable woman who impresses with her determination, talent, and willingness to help others.” (Beata Halicka, Polish American Studies, Vol. 80 (2), 2023)

Author Information

Teresa Meade is the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College in Schenectady, NY, USA.

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