Arrest and Exile
, first published in 1941, is the story of Olga Kochanska, an American citizen who was arrested in Poland by the secret police, transported to Siberia in a freight car, and imprisoned in a labor camp, part of the infamous Soviet gulag system. Kochanska's experiences are detailed, from her interrogations by the N. K. V. D., her treatment at the hands of the Russian guards, to her work details, her fellow inmates of many nationalities and religions, the numbing cold, and her eventual release to freedom in the west. Well-written by noted author Lilian Mowrer,
is an important-and sometimes heartbreaking-part of the body of literature coming from those who survived the gulag.