About The Film
Childhood DENIED documents the deportation of Polish children to Soviet Russia during the Second World War and the brutal conditions they endured in Siberia. The film traces their journey from forced exile to a refugee camp in Tengeru, Africa, and ultimately to resettlement in Canada. It brings attention to a largely overlooked chapter of WWII history and the lasting impact of displacement and survival.
Father Lucjan Krolikowski
Father Lucjan Krolikowski, author of Stolen Childhood, A Saga of Polish War Children, is interviewed extensively in the documentary. As a young seminarian, Krolikowski was deported to Siberia in 1939 along with hundreds of thousands of Polish families. He took his vows as a priest three days before the outbreak of 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.
