Wanda's war

finalist, rakuten kobo emerging writer prize (non-fiction)

what does it mean to be exiled? for the landmarks of your past to disappear?

in 1943, wanda gizmunt was ripped from her family home in poland and deported to a forced labour camp in nazi germany. at the end of the war, she became one of millions of displaced europeans awaiting resettlement.

unwilling to return to then-soviet-occupied poland, wanda became one of 100 young polish women brought to canada in 1947 to address a labour shortage at a quebec textile mill. but rather than arriving to long-awaited freedom, the women found themselves captives to their canadian employer. their treatment eventually became a national controversy, prompting scrutiny of canada’s utilitarian immigration policy.

wanda seized the opportunity to leave the mill in the midst of a strike in 1948. she never looked back, but she remained silent about her wartime experience. only after her death did her daughter-in-law assemble the pieces of wanda’s life in poland, nazi germany, and finally, canada. in this masterful account of a hidden episode of history, faubert chronicles the tragedy of exile and the meaning of silence for those whose traumas were never fully recognized.