"In this finely wrought memoir of loss and survival, Adamczyk tells his family’s story against the backdrop of a little known chapter of WWII--the forced exile of thousands of Poles by the Soviet government in the opening weeks of the war. . . . Adamczyk’s language is earthy, intense, and moving. In addition to the strong portraits of his family, Adamczyk fills the book with unforgettable characters from their odyssey--brutal Red Army soldiers; desperately impoverished yet generous Kazakhs; and the clean, well-dressed Americans. With this work, Adamczyk has brought illumination and honor to the families of the thousands who suffered the same terrible fate."

Publishers Weekly

"A personal story of the horrors that Poles lived through during World War II. When God Looked the Other Way, above all else, explains why there is still a Poland. . . . One of the most remarkable World War II sagas I have ever read. It is history with a human face."

Arnold Beichman | Washington Times

"Most people are not aware that the Soviet Union annexed the eastern half of Poland in September 1939. Even fewer know that until June 1941, as many as 500,000 Polish "enemies of the state" were deported to the U.S.S.R. As the son of a Polish officer and an educated mother, Wesley Adamczyk was the perfect candidate for deportation. . . . When God Looked the Other Way is fascinating, upsetting, and full of small shocks; and Mr. Adamczyk writes heartfelt, straight-forward prose. . . . This book sheds light on more than one forgotten episode of history."

Gordon Haber | New York Sun

"As I finished this book. . . I came to think that it is perhaps a good thing that it was not written and published during the height of the Cold War. At that point, the narrator’s black-and-white moral judgments might simply have been dismissed by many readers as counterpropaganda, and his story and that of his family would have probably been ignored. Now, after the demise of the Soviet Union, when we are no longer trying to prove that our way of life is superior, we can better appreciate the awful privations that the Soviet system created for its citizens and for those unlucky enough to have been caught up in it. Adamczyk’s unpretentious prose is well-suited to capture that truly awful reality. . . . Perhaps Adamczyk’s narrative can help us remember what it is about our country that has traditionally inspired the admiration of the world, and to turn away from the worst elements of hate-mongering and fear that have transformed us into a country more like Adamczyk’s USSR than we would like to be."

Andrew Wachtel | Chicago Tribune

"fascinating"

Piotr Wrobel | The Gazette (Montreal)

"Adamczyk is a master story teller. His account . . . holds the reader’s attention and sympathy throughout."

Anna M. Cienciala | The Polish Review

“Adamczyk recounts the story of his own wartime childhood with exemplary precision and immense emotional sensitivity, presenting the ordeal of one family with the clarity and insight of a skilled novelist. . . . I have read many descriptions of the Siberian odyssey and of other forgotten wartime episodes. But none of them is more informative, more moving, or more beautifully written than When God Looked the Other Way.”

Norman Davies, author of Europe: A History | from the Foreword

"This powerful memoir transforms the faceless statistics of exile, death, and suffering into a narrative of one family’s experience. Well written, carefully researched yet restricting itself to the experience and perspective of the writer, this memoir is highly recommended."

Douglas Carl Peifer | H-Net Book Review