Lost Between Worlds: A World War II Journey of Survival

Lost Between Worlds is based on a journal written between 1940 and 1945 when Edward H Herzbaum was in his twenties. It is a first-hand account of his horrendous wartime experiences, both physical and psychological, published for the first time: the journal had been lying in a suitcase for 65 years until it was discovered and translated.

The book spans a period of history from the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to the end of the Italian Campaign in 1945. It recounts how Edward was arrested and interned by the Germans but escaped. He travelled to eastern Poland to avoid being recaptured, but there he was arrested by the Russians and deported to a Gulag, where he suffered starvation, brutality and horrific working and living conditions. After Germany’s attack on Russia, Edward and the other Polish prisoners were amnestied and released to join a newly-formed Polish army, under British command. They travelled through Middle Asia, Iraq, Iran, British Palestine and Egypt, eventually fighting in the Italian Campaign.

Edward writes at times with humour and irony and at other times with desperation, about his arduous journey and the awful psychological after-effects of the experiences which he and the other Poles had endured. The loss of family, friends and country and the feelings of loneliness at finding themselves completely displaced from their ‘old world’, with no knowledge of what their ‘new world’ might look like, even if they survived the war.

This book will appeal to fans of history and those interested in the Second World War.