Polish Girl in Siberia: Surviving and Transcending Exile

A story of survival, remembrance, and the healing power of kindness.

A big part of my healing journey involved translating my grandmother’s memoir Syberia: Oczami Dziecka, a story of her childhood survival during Stalin’s mass deportations to Siberia during WWII.

Translating this book was a deep dive into my own family’s generational trauma, its historical omission, cultural identity, and intergenerational resilience. Jumping into the intricate details of her harrowing experience illuminated not only an overlooked part of European history, but the quiet power of human kindness —the small, life-saving gestures of strangers that enabled her survival—and how these acts echoed forward through her lifelong work as a renowned physician. Her work through her career helped millions around the world - even by being part of the whistleblowing effort notifying the world of the Chernobyl disaster.

Polish Girl in Siberia is more than a memoir. As I translated her story, I found myself healing our lineage with every word. It wasn't until I opened this story — truly opened it — that I began to see the sacredness in what my family endured. Writing this book was an initiation. It taught me that survival isn’t just physical. It’s spiritual. Energetic. Relational. It is the soft, steady return to truth.

I wrote this book as a tribute to the invisible threads that connect us, the power of ancestral healing, and the ripple effects of even the smallest acts of love.

The book is currently in the process of being published with Disruption Books, a subsidiary of West Wing Writers. Fill out the contact form below to be notified of updates, events and ways to pre-order a copy.