1. Krystyna’s Story
Theme

2. Theme By Halina Ogonowska-Coates
‘Kyrstyna’s Story’ is based on many different accounts of the events that affected the Polish people during World War II. Throughout the book we come to learn about the terrible hardships that were suffered and how the characters dealt with these situations along the way. There are many underlying ideas or themes in this story; we are not just reading about a series of events, we are discovering how Krystyna and the people around her managed to survive.

3. Suggested lay out of book

4. Or…
Theme * Example Quote *

5. Theme 1. Loss …Tata …home in Baranowiczie
‘I was born in Poland, beautiful Poland.’
‘I loved Mama but Tata was my hero.’ (p.2)

6. …family security . ‘I felt the ebb and flow of life and knew my place within it.’ (p.3)
Marysia
Feliks
Aunty Danuta
Mother

7. …her childhood and polishness
‘…it was like
being dispossessed’(p.22)

8. Theme 2. Survival
Survival

9. ..the walk/trek
‘The fabric of our lives was sorted without a thought for those who would wear the clothes.’ (p.22)
‘All I could see was the outlines of people with their belongings piled up around them.’ (p.24)

10. …the train ride to Siberia
…the train ride to Siberia. ‘…a mass of living bodies, a layer of wooden shelves…it was suffocatingly close.’(p.28) ‘Life, death and darkness merged…people were going insane.’ (p.41)

11. …the sledge journey to Siberia ‘It was a long, long night…people groaned aloud with the pain of keeping their bodies upright…’ (p.50)

13. …Siberia (p.54)
‘It was hard to live in this place where you were always hungry, always looking for food, where you were always frightened and nothing made sense any more.’ (p.54)

14. …and life in a labour camp ‘ ‘Every week more and more people died…day and night life dragged on.’ (p.61)

15. but most of all …starvation ‘The hunger dragged you down… the need to eat tormented me…’ (p.61)
Many people died of malnutrition. Their meagre daily diet consisted of a filthy, rat faeces-infested bowl of gruel and occasionally a tiny bit of hard black bread.

16. Theme Fear
Krystyna lives in constant fear…

17. … her imprisonment ‘I was afraid that we would die in this
dark damp cellar and that no one would care.’ (p.68)

18. …witnesses cruelty ‘I was scared of the soldiers.
They were rough and brutal.”
(p.64)

19. …and death ‘Sick and dying people were lying everywhere on the floor…Everyone was thin and dirty.’ (p.73)

20. …horrid conditions ‘I watched the life ebb out of those around me and
wondered if I would be
next.’ (p.73)
‘…suspended between
life and death…’(p.74)

21. …inhumanity ‘We lifted up my mother and put her o a stack of corpses right beside the railway line. Other bodies went on top of her.’ (p.76)

22. …uncertainty. ‘we were a truck load of children without a future. ’ (p
…uncertainty. ‘we were a truck load of children without a future.’ (p.83) ‘I stood on the deck…wondering what would happen to us now. ’(p.84)

23. …orphanage at Isfahan ’…her words didn’t really reassure me and rumours spread; Someone told me that there were cannibals in New Zealand; Great big people with enormous mouths and blood dripping from their jaws.’ p.89
The girls who were accommodated in Home No 5 pose for the camera. Before the children moved to New Zealand and other places there were 17 of these Polish homes In Isfahan

24. Theme 4. Adapting to new culture
‘You will not be permitted to talk in Polish among yourselves.’
Her name is automatically changed from Krystyna to Christine.

25. Wellington… ‘I thought that he looked like a kind man even though I did not understand what he was saying.’ (p.93)
The Polish refugee children are welcomed on board the American troopship "General Randall" in Wellington Harbour on November 1, 1944, by Prime Minister Peter Fraser.

26. Pahiatua ‘Life at Pahiatua Camp settled down to a regular pattern.’ (p.96)
The welcoming party of New Zealand soldiers on the platform of Pahiatua Railway Station on November 2, 1944.  They helped the children with their luggage onto waiting army trucks that took them to their new home.

27. Pahiatua Camp ‘We stared at the New Zealanders and they stared back at us…’ (p.98-99)

28. …a new culture …a new language ‘Our classes were in Polish and although we had one English lesson a week we knew very little about our new country.’ (p.98)

29. …different
food
‘After the meat we had wobbly coloured puddings that were sweet and empty.’ ‘It was good to know tht there would be something to eat tomorrow.’ (p.96)

30. …a new routine and rules
‘I guess they wanted to see what we looked like but I hated being stared at.’ (p.98)
‘I’d try and hide in the toilets for hours. Sometimes I’d run past their cars shouting rudely in Polish.’ (p.98)

31. Theme