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Palgrave Macmillan

We Don't Become Refugees by Choice

Mia Truskier, Survival, and Activism from Occupied Poland to California, 1920-2014

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  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Teresa A. Meade

    1. Union College, Schenectady, USA

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  • Connects the refugee experience in the two major eras of human displacement: during and after World War II and today
  • Illustrates the role of Jewish women in the resistance to Nazi-occupied Poland and as exiles in Italy during the war
  • Uses personal testimony to show how one woman transformed her own suffering and loss as a refugee from the Holocaust

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Oral History (PSOH)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Mia Truskier: The “Oldest Refugee”

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 1-35

  3. The Making of Mia’s World: Warsaw and Zurich, 1890–1939

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 37-67

  4. Fleeing Poland, 1939–1940

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 69-95

  5. Hiding in Plain Sight: Italy, 1940–1945

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 97-126

  6. The War Years in Warsaw and the Soviet Union, 1939–1945

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 127-154

  7. Poland: In the Warsaw Ghetto and on the Aryan Side, 1939–1945

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 155-176

  8. The Aftermath of War in Europe, 1945–1949

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 177-195

  9. Mia’s American World: From Nebraska Immigrant to California Activist, 1949–1970

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 197-225

  10. “Don’t Give In, Don’t Give Up!” Refugees and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, 1968–2014

    • Teresa A. Meade
    Pages 227-256

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 257-270
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Keywords

About this book

This book traces the life of Maria Mia Truskier, who fled the Nazis as a young Polish Jew in early 1940 and once safely resettled in the United States, became an activist for other refugees, earning renown in the Bay Area as “the oldest refugee” of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Mia worked for decades assisting those fleeing from war, violence and hardship, mainly from Central America and Haiti. Based on extensive interviews with Truskier before she passed away, as well as memorabilia from her own lifetime, including coded letters, newspaper clippings, and old photographs, this book results in a complex and multi-layered oral history. As Mia drew on memories of her life in Europe and World War II, she was situating and constructing those memories while re-reading and discovering these artifacts alongside the author of this book, and ultimately relating the ways that she and her family years later sought to make a difference for other refugees, drawing a connection between two major eras of human displacement: the end of World War II and today. 

Reviews

“This book is the biography of a remarkable woman, Maria Mia Truskier … . For readers … this book provides a unique insight into the method of oral history and the challenges it presents. … Meade has published an important book that tells the life story of a person … a biography of an unstoppable woman who impresses with her determination, talent, and willingness to help others.” (Beata Halicka, Polish American Studies, Vol. 80 (2), 2023)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Union College, Schenectady, USA

    Teresa A. Meade

About the author

Teresa Meade is the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College in Schenectady, NY, USA.

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