The Ice Road

by StefanW.Waydenfeld (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.50

  One and a half million Poles - designated by Stalin as enemies of the people - were deported during the World War II to labour camps in the forests and steppes of the Soviet Union. The Ice Road charts the shocking story of the hardship and misery faced by 15-year-old Stefan and his family. Stefan describes the idiosyncrasies of his family and friends, their drastically changed circumstances and their indomitable will to survive. The squalid living conditions, the inadequate food, the hard physical work and the nine-month-long winters that he and his fellow Poles had to suffer are all graphically brought to life. In 1941, the German attack on the Soviet Union and the changed political alliance liberates Stefan and his family, but they are released into a country still embroiled in war. Although technically free, they are kept with the other prisoners and herded like animals from the far north of the USSR to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea. They are deliberately starved to keep them submissive. Eventually Stefan and his family manage to leave the accursed country with the help of the Polish army - but not before some difficult obstacles and last-minute hitches are overcome.