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Essence
Krystine Tomaszyk
Dunmore Press
Review by Peter watt (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Krystine tomaszyk opens her memoir by recalling an emotional reunion.

In a speech to Rotarians in Hamilton in 1980, she described her epic journey to New Zealand with hundreds of other Polish refugees 36 years earlier.

"The journey would have been distressing for the children, if not for the Kiwi soldiers on board, who spent time with them and entertained them," Tomaszyk said.

A man in the audience stood up - he was one of those soldiers; within moments there was barely a dry eye in the house.

There are many emotional moments in Tomaszyk's story, but she is a skilful writer who uses a light hand to tell what is at times a very heavy tale.

It's a tale well worth telling, giving a rare insight not only into the flight to New Zealand of some 700 Polish refugees, most of whom were children, but also of the challenges they faced once they arrived here. Surprisingly, some of Tomaszyk's most intriguing memories are of her social work among poverty-stricken Maori in the Bay of Plenty in the 1960s.

With remarkable recall, Tomaszyk tells her fascinating life story, from comfortable early childhood in Poland, through the brutal hardship of wartime deportation by the Russians to Siberia, and the journey in 1944 via Iran to New Zealand where she and most of her fellow refugees made their permanent home.

Courage, resilience, patriotism and great spiritual faith helped steer Tomaszyk and her young compatriots to this safe haven. Those same qualities nourished them when Russian-imposed communism in their beloved Poland forced them to remain in New Zealand after World War II.

Some of the boys among the refugees were sent to Taranaki for their schooling. Many people here will remember them, without ever having known what they had been through.

Tomaszyk's story is their story. It carries a positive message of triumph over adversity and, in this time of considerable debate about the intake of refugees, reminds us that such people can and do enrich this country.