Fr. Lucjan Krolikowski
Childhood DENIED documents the deportation of Polish children from Poland to Soviet Russia during WWII. Ania, the narrator, is a young girl taken by train in the winter of 1940 to Stalin’s killing fields in Siberia. She personifies the children whose lives were violently ripped apart by the ravages of war, often never to be repaired. This tragedy is amplified today by the fact that few people know about this chapter in the history of WWII.
After The War
Fr. Krolikowski was eventually reassigned to an East African camp for Polish refugees in Tengeru.
In 1949, the Warsaw Communists claimed guardianship of the Polish orphans in Africa and demanded their repatriation. Fr. Krolikowski was dubbed “a kidnapper on an international scale” by the Polish government when he led the orphans away from potential danger to new homes in Canada.
He later resided at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus in Chicopee, Mass., and was still in contact with ‘his children’ on a regular basis.
Father Krolikowski, a great advocate for social justice, received The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from former President Kaczynski of the Republic of Poland for his work and dedication to Poland and the Polish refugees and war orphans. Fr. Krolikowski died on October 11, 2019, at Our Lady of the Angels Care Center, Enfield, CT. May he rest in peace.
Dr. Lynne Taylor
Also interviewed is Dr. Lynne Taylor, a professor of history at the University of Waterloo and author of The Polish Children of Tengeru: The Dramatic Story of Their Long Journey to Canada, 1941-49. Dr. Lynne Taylor studies state-society relations in Western Europe in the context of war. She has spend considerable time studying questions of resistance and collaboration during World War II and has a book published on the Nazi occupations of northern France during World War II. She is currently engaged in a study of the Displaced Persons crisis in Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She teaches 19th and 20th century Western European history.
Lynne Taylor is Jack Somerville Senior Lecturer in Pastoral Theology.
Lynne’s PhD explored the conversion experiences of previously unchurched Australians and her ongoing research interests include contemporary religious conversion and faith formation; spirituality and well-being; congregational studies (including church responses to COVID and other crises); pastoral care; chaplaincy; and research methodologies in practical theology and missiology.
Lynne teaches papers in pastoral and practical theology and ministry; papers that consider the work of the church and Christians in the world today.
Prior to and in conjunction with her academic role, Lynne has worked and volunteered in pastoral ministry, and engaged in congregational and denominational research.
