§16§This book traces the life of Maria Mia Truskier, who fled the Nazis as a young Polish Jew in early 1940 and once safely resettled in the United States, became an activist for other refugees, earning renown in the Bay Area as "the oldest refugee" of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Mia worked for decades assisting those fleeing from war, violence and hardship, mainly from Central America and Haiti. Based on extensive interviews with Truskier before she passed away, as well as memorabilia from her own lifetime, including coded letters, newspaper clippings, and old photographs, this book results in a complex and multi-layered oral history. As Mia drew on memories of her life in Europe and World War II, she was situating and constructing those memories while re-reading and discovering these artifacts alongside the author of this book, and ultimately relating the ways that she and her family years later sought to make a difference for other refugees, drawing a connection between two ma §16§jor eras of human displacement: the end of World War II and today. §§ §04§1. Mia Truskier: The "Oldest Refugee".- 2. The Making of Mia's World: Warsaw and Zurich, 1890-1939.- 3. Fleeing Poland, 1939-1940.- 4. Hiding in Plain Sight: Italy, 1940-1945.- 5. The War Years in Warsaw and the Soviet Union, 1939-1945.- 6. Poland: In the Warsaw Ghetto and on the Aryan Side, 1939-1945.- 7. The Aftermath of War in Europe, 1945-1949.- 8. Mia's American World: From Nebraska Immigrant to California Activist, 1949-1970.- 9. "Don't Give In, Don't Give Up!" Refugees and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, 1968-2014. §13§"This book is the biography of a remarkable woman, Maria Mia Truskier ... . For readers ... this book provides a unique insight into the method of oral history and the challenges it presents. ... Meade has published an important book that tells the life story of a person ... a biography of an unstoppable woman who impresses with her determination, talent, and willingness to help others." (Beata Halicka, Polish American Studies, Vol. 80 (2), 2023) §02§Teresa Meade is the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture at Union College in Schenectady, NY, USA.§
