Page 21 - The University of Wisconsin Press Spring 2013
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HISTORY / WORLD WAR II / CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE
“Reilly’s engaging book, a valuable historical source, is a homage to the
Lemkos, whose world has disappeared forever.”
Piotr J. Wróbel, Konstanty
Reynert Chair of Polish History, University of Toronto
Following World War II, the communist government of Poland forcibly relo-
cated the country’s Ukrainian minority by means of a Soviet-Polish population
exchange and then a secretly planned action code-named Operation Vistula. In
Scattered
, Diana Howansky Reilly recounts these events through the experiences
of three siblings caught up in the conflict, during a turbulent period when com-
pulsory resettlement was a common political tactic used against national minori-
ties to create homogenous states.
Born in the Lemko region of southeastern Poland, Petro, Melania, and Hania
Pyrtej survived World War II only to be separated by political decisions over
which they had no control. Petro relocated with his wife to Soviet Ukraine during
the population exchange of 1944–46, while his sisters Melania and Hania were
resettled to western Poland through Operation Vistula in 1947. As the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army fought resettlement, the Polish government meanwhile impris-
oned suspected sympathizers within the Jaworzno concentration camp. Melania,
Reilly’s maternal grandmother, eventually found her way to the United States
during Poland’s period of liberalization in the 1960s.
Drawing on oral interviews and archival research, Reilly tells a fascinating,
true story that provides a bottom-up perspective
and illustrates the impact of extraordinary historical
events on the lives of ordinary people. Tracing the
story to the present, she describes survivors’ efforts
to receive compensation for the destruction of their
homes and communities.
Diana Howansky Reilly
has master’s degrees from
Johns Hopkins University, in international affairs,
and from the Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism. She lives in Connecticut.
MAY
LC: 2012037002 DK
144 PP. 5 ½ X 8 ¼ 37 B/W ILLUS.,
5 MAPS
E-BOOK $17.95 ISBN 978-0-299-29343-7
“A very readable book, dealing with
complex and controversial issues
of World War II and the early Cold
War in a balanced and enlightened
manner. Reilly shows how such
events as the Nazi and Communist
occupations, the Holocaust, ethnic
cleansing, and forced deportations
affected and continue to affect the
lives of the people in the region.”
Serhii Plokhii, Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Professor of Ukrainian History, Harvard
University
UWPRESS
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WISC
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EDU
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O f r e l a t e d i n t e r e s t
“
W
ell written and exhaustively
researched.”—Jack L. Jacobs, John Jay
College
PUBLISHED JANUARY 2004
LC: 2003008903 DK 378 PP. 6 × 9
35 B/W PHOTOS AND GRAPHS
E-BOOK $16.95 ISBN 978-0-299-19463-5
Suzanne Sutcliffe Photography
