Lost Between Worlds is based on a journal written between 1940 and 1945, by Edward H Herzbaum, when he was in his twenties. It is a first-hand account of his horrendous wartime experiences, both physical and psychological, that has just been published for the first time by his daughter: the journal had been lying in a suitcase for 65 years until it was discoveredand translated.
The book spans a period of history from the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to the end of the Italian Campaign in 1945. It recounts how Edward was arrested and interned by the Germans but escaped. He travelled to eastern Poland to avoid being recaptured, but there he was arrested by the Russians and deported to a Gulag, where he suffered starvation, brutality and horrific working and living conditions.
After Germany's attack on Russia, Edward and the other Polish prisoners were amnestied and released to join a newly-formed Polish army, under British command. They travelled through Middle Asia, Iraq, Iran, British Palestine and Egypt, eventually fighting in the Italian Campaign.
Edward writes at times with humour and irony and at other times with desperation, about his arduous journey and the awful psychological after-effects of the experiences which he and the other Poles had endured. The loss of family, friends and country and the feelings of loneliness at finding themselves completely displaced from their 'old world', with no knowledge of what their 'new world' might look like, even if they survived the war.
Edward Herzbaum, born in 1920 to Polish Jewish parents, was educated in Poland. During WWII he was arrested and escaped from both the Germans and Russians and then fought in the Polish Army. In 1946 he settled in the UK and became an architect. He died in 1967.
Available from:
Troubador Publishing
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