Fr. 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.

ChatGPT said:

After WWII...

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.