They Called Us D.P.S

Abstract

In August 1942, after having spent three years under Russian slave labor, thousands of Polish citizens are exiled to Iran under the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement. Alicja Moskaluk, her brother Jerzy, and their mother Maria are three of those D.P.s - Displaced Persons. At Camp #1 near the city of Tehran, Alicja, a clever, charming and slightly obstinate girl of 17 braves the camp regulations as well as the social customs of their host country of Iran - and pretty much anything that threatens to hold her back. Alicja is determined to find the life and the freedom that was stolen from her by the cruelty of the Soviet war machine. Alicja's a good student in the refuge school [except maybe when it comes to her nemesis, that 'monster' Algebra], so she and the other girls of Camp #1 find plenty of spare time to explore the boundaries of being refugees and no longer slaves. After two years at Camp #1, Alicja is assigned to work the mess hall at the US Army camp at Khorramshahr, Iran where she meets her future husband Lieutenant Ernest 'Edmund' Edwards. From that meeting, her long desired freedom begins to unfold.