Scratches on a Prison Wall

"In this gripping memoir of a young Ukrainian woman's encounter with Communism and Nazism, Luba Komar experiences imprisonment, torture, death row, violence, escape, resistance, and, finally, flight to the West. Throughout, Luba retains her dignity and manifests a quiet heroism-convincingly demonstrating that totalitarianism is ultimately powerless in the face of individuals with the spiritual courage to speak the truth."
-Alexander J. Motyl, Rutgers University-Newark,
Author of Who Killed Andrei Warhol
Ukraine is suffering under Soviet domination in 1940 as World War II begins. Luba Komar, a politically active student at a Ukrainian university, finds herself whisked away in the middle of the night by the Soviet Secret Police. She is tortured, imprisoned and then sentenced to death in a secret Soviet trial.
Fortunately, her death sentence is commuted to exile. With other prisoners, she's loaded onto a train headed to the dreaded Siberian concentration camps.
Luckily, Luba never reaches Siberia. As Nazi bombers approach overhead, the Soviets divert the train to another prison. There, the inmates courageously stage a prison break, risking their lives.
Luba is witness to the dramatic events that shaped Ukrainian and Soviet history both during and after WWII. In recording her ordeal, she brings to life the stories of her fellow prisoners, and recounts her eventual escape to the West. Scratches on a Prison Wall is a powerful testament to its author and the times in which she lived.

Luba Komar grew up in Western Ukraine and joined the struggle for Ukrainian independence while a student at Lviv University. Following her imprisonment and escape, she immigrated to the United States in 1949. She continued supporting a free Ukraine, until her death in 2007. TRANSLATOR'S BIO Christine Prokop is Luba Komar's daughter. She grew up in New York City where she was an active participant in the Ukrainian community. She has worked as a landscape architect and rehabilitation counselor. This is her first published translation. She lives in Southern California.