The Journey Kiszka Family from Innocence Through Darkness to True Light

By Joseph Kiszka

This is Joseph Kiszka's autobiography describing his childhood in Poland, being rounded up and sent to Siberia by the Russians during World War II, then the long struggle to freedom by way of Iran, England, and finally the United States where he worked as a mechanical engineer, and finally for many years as an Imagineer at Disney. It is an inspiring tale of courage and optimism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479753017

Joseph Kiszka

AUTHOR SAID NO AUTHOR BIO

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Copyright © 2012 by Joseph Kiszka.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Joe’s Story

Michelle’s Story

Two Lives Become One

Acknowledgments

A special thank you to Dr. Deana Costner and her husband, David, for the many hours spent in writing and compiling my life story. Without my very special friends, prayer support group, House of Hope leaders, Sara, and Sandy—who have all shown us, by example, how to live by faith—my life would have not been as fruitful and full. God has a unique way of bringing special people into my life.

Most importantly, I am further indebted to my precious wife, Michelle, who has been my helpmate, the mother of our daughter, Dorothy, and our son, Michael.

The last and the greatest influence on my life is my relationship with God. I have seen a glimpse of his kingdom as I have lived on this earth. I am experiencing a touch of Heaven in this good life. I am grateful.

—Joseph Kiszka

Joe’s Story

As written and told by Joseph Kiszka

The Years of our Lord 2007-2009

My heritage and birth are Polish. I became a naturalized American citizen in 1957 in Brooklyn, New York. I came to the United States as a young man of twenty with my parents, sailing from Southampton, England, at the end of World War II. Our pilgrimage was long, dangerous, and difficult.

The journey to the United States started in February 1940 when we were displaced by the Soviet Union’s Army (Russia), who invaded our part of Poland (Kresy), and moved the people of eastern Poland to Siberia, where we lived until the winter of 1943 when the Germans turned their mighty army toward Russia. There were approximately 450,000 families affected. Freedom from the war finally came in 1945, but it would be two years before we would arrive in England and four more years before we came to America.

When the war in Europe ended, we were given choices: return to western Poland to land taken from the defeated Germans, go to countries in South America or Africa, or migrate to England. My mother chose to go to England. The Polish people who selected to return to Poland would soon fall under the heavy hand of the Soviet Union and Communist dictators. Theirs would be an even longer, harder struggle for freedom.

Our freedom from the rule of the Soviet Union in 1943 was a journey just as stressful as our time in Siberia had been. We crossed strange lands (Russia, Iran, India, and parts which are in Pakistan today). We interacted with hostile people to get to the Arabian Sea where a British ship would take us up the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean Sea, to the Atlantic Ocean, and across the English Channel. We were considered misplaced people. This land trip toward freedom would take us four years. We traveled by train, boat, bus, and mostly, by foot. The very old and the very young rode camels in the desert. The very old, the sick,