BOOK NOTES: Two personal accounts of experiences during world upheavals (05/16/99)

BOOK NOTES

Two personal accounts of experiences during world upheavals

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The following two books are personal accounts of individual lives as they were directly affected by the great upheavals of the time - collectivization and the Stalin purges of the 1930s, and wartime life and Nazi labor camps during World War II.

They have in common the uprootedness of existence characteristic of people forced to leave or flee their native land during the war years. As such, the works may be seen in the general context of the fate of many post-World War II refugees and displaced persons from Ukraine.

Undoubtedly all refugees have a story of their own. Each account is compelling; each is painful and moving to read. Each is a chronicle of a life in conditions that break the body and spirit - of losses suffered, hardships endured and the struggle to survive.

The writing of such accounts is not easy. In both works the seminal experience stems from traumas suffered in early childhood - the cutting short of the idyll of childhood and a loving home, the loss of parents. For Mrs. Demczyna this occurs as she is taken as a forced laborer to Germany; for Mrs. Dallas, as she witnesses the beginnings of collectivization that ultimately claim the lives of her parents.

For Mrs. Demczyna there is the need to keep the vow taken as a young girl in the labor camp that whoever should survive that hell would tell the world, as well as to document the life and times for her immediate family.

For Mrs. Dallas there is the reluctance to remember the past because of the pain, sorrow and despair associated with her youth, including such traumatic incidents as sexual abuse. Yet, writing is a means of coming to terms with the past. In the process she salvages "some good memories, positive experiences," despite all the pain, turmoil and instability that formed a large part of her life.

Ultimately, for both authors writing these accounts is a means of exposing the injustice and brutality suffered by the Ukrainian people under the Soviet and Nazi regimes. The publication of these memoirs in English makes them accessible to a larger audience.

Both works are dedicated to the authors' families.

From East to West, Antonina Demczyna. Belleville, Ontario: Essence Publishing, 1996.

In the general context of the German occupation of the Soviet Union, the author brings to the fore her own harsh treatment during the years spent in forced labor in Nazi Germany during World War II.

The idyllic life enjoyed in the town of Maloarchangelsk is upset in October 1941, with the arrival of German troops. By June of 1942 Antonina, then not quite 16, along with countless others, is transported by freight car to a wartime factory in Leipzig, Germany.

The book is a wrenching account of loss of parents and homeland.

The author gives graphic descriptions of hardships endured and the unbearable conditions in the factory and its barracks; along with a vivid portrayal of the sadistic overseer and an alchololic commandant. In the midst of such brutal existence, resourcefulness becomes a way of life, and of survival, for the young girls at the Tura factory.

However, even in this hell there are bright spots: while in Leipzig, Antonina meets and marries Stefan Demczyna. At war's end the couple, with a set of twins, make their way to England whence they are able to emigrate to Canada.

In the words of the author the forced laborers "... suffered shock, emotional and physical pain, brutality and near starvation."

"But I can only tell my story, and a little part of what happened to those I knew in the labor camps," Mrs. Demczyna notes.

In writing the author fulfilled the vow made as a young girl in the labor camp that whoever should survive that hell would tell the world.

In relating her experience, she says she hoped "... to portray [her] determination of retaining self-esteem, even if it had to be hidden at times. Most of all, I wanted to characterize the strength of the human spirit and the will to survive."

In reflecting on the past, the author notes that "if my years of writing reaches out and touches other persons in some way, then I can add with joy, 'My cup runneth over!'"

The book may be ordered from: Essence Publishing, 103B Cannifton Road; Belleville, Ontario, Canada K8N 4 V2; telephone, 1-800-238-6376; fax, (613) 962-3055.

One Woman: Five Lives; Five Countries, Eugenia Sakevich Dallas. Aurora, Colo.: The National Writers Press, 1998.

The work is a compelling account of the life of Eugenia Sakevich Dallas, whose life's journey takes her from her village of Kamiana Balka in southern Ukraine, through the devastating Stalin purges of the 1930s and Nazi Germany labor camps, then on to the glittering fashion runways of Italy, and finally to a settled life in Scotland and the United States.

The work is a straighforward, chronological account of the author's experiences and adaptation to life in the various countries where "fate or luck" took her.

The account starts with the traumatic events and losses the author suffered as a child, age 5 or 6, as a result of the beginning of collectivization in Ukraine, going on to a life of repeated moving, hard labor and the constant struggle to merely survive - ultimately on her own.

With the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the author finds herself in Austria as a forced laborer in a munitions plant in Graz. Emotionally and physically drained, and wanting "nothing more than sleep," she, like the others, mostly teenagers, in the camp, felt nothing but apathy when exposed to Allied bombing, "too numb to feel fear or excitement ... ," thinking that if a bomb would hit it would be for the better.

At war's end, the author, with no possessions other than "the papers documenting (her) parents' arrest, the clothes she was wearing ... and her cross," heads for Italy.

In Italy the overwhelming impression is the "great sense of release, of freedom, to be out of the area of Soviet control." At the age of 20, the author is launched on a career as a high fashion model in Milan, which helps her develop a sense of self-assurance and worth. This period, however, is marked by a preoccupation with lack of legal status in the country; to ease her anxiety she takes on a new name and identity.

At the age of 24 the author emigrates to the United States and experiences "life as a free woman." She lives and works as a model in New York, where she enjoys the artistic and intellectual life of the city, and subsequently in Los Angeles and Dallas. The promise of the fulfillment of marriage eludes her as her second husband turns out to be an alcholic and their son's life becomes dominated by drugs. She experiences illness, surgery and recovery accompanied by a divorce at age 31.

The fifth country, referred to in the chapter titled "Scotland and life as a pampered wife, 1973-1982," represents a kind of stepping back into the past of a charmed tranquil way of living and an active social life in a grand manner - the result of the author's marriage to Stewart Dallas, a Scottish solicitor from Glasgow, whom she met in Palma de Mallorca and married on April 5, 1973, in Beverly Hills. This is the most stable and personally fulfilling period of the author's life, which lasted until her husband's illness and death in 1993.

As a result of her husband's illness, the couple moves to Hollywood Hills and subsequently to Los Angeles. Upon her husband's death, Mrs. Dallas becomes increasingly more involved with Ukrainian émigré organizations (e.g., the Ukrainian Cultural Center) in Los Angeles and embarks on working for Ukrainian causes and giving aid to Ukraine.

The work concludes with an "Afterthought" and an informative section titled "Notes on Ukraine," which gives an overview of Ukrainian history, including most recent developments. The book also has been published in Ukraine.

One Woman: Five Lives; Five Countries may be ordered by sending a check or money order to: Eugenia Dallas, 6702 Hillpark Drive, Hollywood, CA 90068. The cost: $16.95 plus $2.25 for shipping.

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