From the Soviet Gulag to Arnhem: A Polish Paratrooper's Epic Wartime Journey

Nicholas Kinloch, BSc (Honours) 1999

Caught Between Nazis and Soviets, Stanislaw Kulik was a man who dodged death.

After the Russian occupation of Poland, Stanislaw Kulik, aged 15, was deported to the Soviet gulags and put to work. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. While many died, Stanislaw managed to survive. Following the Nazis’ invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he was given an opportunity to join the Polish army being formed somewhere in the Soviet Union, but nobody knew where.

After months travelling on his own through central Asia, through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Stanislaw finally reached Iraq, where he worked in a camp which processed Polish refugees. Too young to join up, the Army faked his age and eventually he was then taken by ship via India to Great Britain, where he joined up with the Polish Parachute Brigade. After qualifying as a paratrooper in Scotland, he fought at Arnhem, in Operation Market Garden, where he found himself trapped behind enemy lines. Thanks to the Dutch underground he managed to escape from the Nazis.

This thrilling historical account is an inspiring story of a triumph of resilience and courage against great odds.

ISBN: 978-1399045919