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A Polish Serviceman's Fight to Survive in the Second World War
Stalin is quoted as saying ‘One man’s death is a tragedy, a thousand deaths is a statistic’. This is the story of a man who was determined to be neither.
Kazimierz Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Hubert was 17 when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. Despite his young age, he was quickly deported to the Vorkuta Gulag in the Arctic Circle, for the crime of being the son of a military governor. Here he would survive torture, starvation and even the threat of cannibalism, before he managed to escape and set off on a 6,000km walk to freedom.
In this moving tale of endurance against all odds, Andrew Hubert von Staufer traces his father’s footsteps from the gulags of Siberia to flying Spitfires in air battles against the Luftwaffe. This is a remarkable account of the Second World War and its long-reaching impact.
‘A searing account of one man's struggle for survival, as a man and as a Pole. A deeply personal exploration of one facet of the Polish experience, the author conjures up the horrors of Siberian deportation, the chaos of liberation and the challenges of adapting to life in wartime Britain. Despite it all, Tomek clings to his ultimate ambition: to take the fight to the Germans at the controls of a Spitfire.’
Jenny Grant, historian & specialist of Poles in exile,
‘A true story that reminds us why Britain went to war with Germany in 1939. The protagonist survived a truly tortuous imprisonment and escape to Britain where he trained and fought as a spitfire pilot during the liberation of Europe. He survived only to see his country occupied by Stalin's Soviet Union whilst all around him celebrated VE Day. That his sanity was saved by the love of an English wife was lucky. May the betrayal of Poland by war-weary allies not be repeated in Ukraine.’
A. V. Smith, Specialist in Humanitarian Mine Action (post-conflict explosive hazard removal),
‘One man’s extraordinary tale of survival during the Second World War.’
History of War,
‘This is an odyssey, the true story of a young man's journey against the background of total war. Tomek yearns to survive and fight to regain his land, but little does he know it, the world he has left behind has vanished forever.’
Mark Urban, writer and broadcaster,
