We Don't Become Refugees by Choice

Mia Truskier, Survival, and Activism from Occupied Poland to California, 1920-2014

Teresa A. Meade (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

XXIII, 270 Seiten

2022 | 1st ed. 2021
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-84527-8 (ISBN)

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This book traces the life of Maria Mia Truskier, who fled the Nazis as a young Polish Jew in early 1940 and once safely resettled in the United States, became an activist for other refugees, earning renown in the Bay Area as "the oldest refugee" of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Mia worked for decades assisting those fleeing from war, violence and hardship, mainly from Central America and Haiti. Based on extensive interviews with Truskier before she passed away, as well as memorabilia from her own lifetime, including coded letters, newspaper clippings, and old photographs, this book results in a complex and multi-layered oral history. As Mia drew on memories of her life in Europe and World War II, she was situating and constructing those memories while re-reading and discovering these artifacts alongside the author of this book, and ultimately relating the ways that she and her family years later sought to make a difference for other refugees, drawing a connection between two major eras of human displacement: the end of World War II and today.

Teresa Meade is the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College in Schenectady, NY, USA.

1. Mia Truskier: The "Oldest Refugee".- 2. The Making of Mia's World: Warsaw and Zurich, 1890-1939.- 3. Fleeing Poland, 1939-1940.- 4. Hiding in Plain Sight: Italy, 1940-1945.- 5. The War Years in Warsaw and the Soviet Union, 1939-1945.- 6. Poland: In the Warsaw Ghetto and on the Aryan Side, 1939-1945.- 7. The Aftermath of War in Europe, 1945-1949.- 8. Mia's American World: From Nebraska Immigrant to California Activist, 1949-1970.- 9. "Don't Give In, Don't Give Up!" Refugees and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, 1968-2014.

"This book is the biography of a remarkable woman, Maria Mia Truskier ... . For readers ... this book provides a unique insight into the method of oral history and the challenges it presents. ... Meade has published an important book that tells the life story of a person ... a biography of an unstoppable woman who impresses with her determination, talent, and willingness to help others." (Beata Halicka, Polish American Studies, Vol. 80 (2), 2023)

“This book is the biography of a remarkable woman, Maria Mia Truskier … . For readers … this book provides a unique insight into the method of oral history and the challenges it presents. … Meade has published an important book that tells the life story of a person … a biography of an unstoppable woman who impresses with her determination, talent, and willingness to help others.” (Beata Halicka, Polish American Studies, Vol. 80 (2), 2023)

Erscheinungsdatum	29.11.2022
Reihe/Serie	Palgrave Studies in Oral History
Zusatzinfo	XXIII, 270 p. 33 illus.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	386 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
Schlagworte	History of Warsaw • human displacement • Nazi Poland • Polish Jews • polish resistance • Refugee Activism • Refugee crisis • The Holocaust • World War II
ISBN-10	3-030-84527-3 / 3030845273
ISBN-13	978-3-030-84527-8 / 9783030845278
Zustand	Neuware