The Labyrinth of Dangerous Hours: A Memoir of the Second World War

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

Lilka Trzcinska was a 14-year-old high-school student when the Nazis
invaded Poland in 1939 and, shortly thereafter, closed all the schools.
Lilka and her siblings continued their lessons in secret classes. They
also joined a resistance force called the Polish Home Army. In 1943,
Lilka and her family were arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz
where her mother died. After being transported to a number of other
camps, the three sisters were reunited in 1945, and soon liberated from
Bergen-Belsen by the British. Lilka continued her education in Italy and
came to Canada in 1948.

The Labyrinth of Dangerous Hours is both the memoir of one survivor and
a testament to the struggle of the more than 150,000 non-Jewish Poles
who became political prisoners during World War II. It is also a
beautiful piece of creative writing by an author who uses both poetry
and prose to describe her own adolescence and that of her sisters and
brothers. She effectively conveys the strength of her family ties and
the solidarity that enabled them to emerge from their ordeal with their
dignity intact. She also conveys serenity and optimism while at the same
time expressing her frustration at the delayed response of the Allies to
the plight of the Jews and others under the Nazis. A brief epilogue
brings her family’s story up to date.

Readers should give their full attention to The Labyrinth of Dangerous
Hours in order to appreciate not simply the tale, but the compelling way
in which it is told.