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Natalka's story is fascinating reading, telling her family's story during both the First and Second World Wars, caught between opposing powers grasping for territory. Over time, their home in Galicia, in the western Ukraine, became part of Poland, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later was occupied alternately by the Germans and the Russians.

The Soviet-Russian occupation in 1941 saw her grandparents and her aunt sent to a camp in Siberia. By 1944, the Soviets were again moving into their beloved Galicia, and Natalka's parents knew it was time for the family to go with what possessions they could carry, to avoid the same fate.

This book outlines their journey as ‘displaced persons' across Europe, working in forced labour camps in Austria and Bavaria until the end of the War. As refugees, they then spent five years waiting in refugee camps in Bavaria, before being accepted for migration to Australia.

Natalka describes the difficulties encountered by all refugees in post-war Australia, settling into a different society with a different climate and language, and their problems in gaining acceptance in their new homeland.

Published privately in 2015. 190 pages, with photographs.

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