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Due to the long periods in history during which Poland was under Russian rule, many Poles know more than a little Russian in addition to their native language. In this story, it is 1939, and Alexander Wat (Krzysztof Globisz) is a Polish Jew, a well-known writer can see the likelihood of the Nazi takeover only too clearly. Rather than trust the kindness of the Germans, he takes his family and flees secretly into the Ukraine. Other Poles have chosen the same course of action, and when he is betrayed by a journalist friend, he and the others are sent to a camp in remote rural Kazakhstan, where the conditions are, perhaps, slightly better than those they would endure under the Germans, but only just. However, with determination, they are able to survive. This story is based on a memoir written by Alexander Wat's daughter, Ola.