A Death in the Forest

In September 1939, Germany and Russia invaded Poland from west and east, like two hammers beating on an anvil. Thus began the Second World War, the worst thing that ever happened. Among those caught up in this catastrophe was a five-year-old named Basia Deszberg, whose father was a colonel in the Polish army, and whose brother was a lieutenant of artillery. Their story is told by Daniel Ford, an American author who as a young man knew Basia when they were students together at the University of Manchester in England. 'A Death in the Forest' comprises four chapters of a much larger work, which will be published later this year. It tells the story of how war came to Potocki Street in Lwow, in Poland's southeast; how Russian executioners murdered nearly 22,000 Polish prisoners--officers, enlisted men, policemen, doctors, government officials--in one of the worst atrocities of the Second World War; and how the women and children were deported to the steppes of Kazakhstan, there to survive as best they could. With photographs, chapter notes, and a preview of the coming book. About 22,000 words.