Fresh meat into the fray

[alaric99x]

Thank you too, Gary. I guess the Polish woman's crime was that her father was executed, that would normally be reason enough to send her to the camps. Poland really got screwed during WWII, first by the Germans and Soviets in '39 and then after "liberation" in '45. The Baltic countries suffered too (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) where many citizens were hauled away in '39 and then again in '44 - '45. In fact, every European country liberated by the Soviets had thousands of citizens hauled away. It's understandable that all these countries are so eager to join the EU and NATO now, they haven't forgotten the indelicate treatment of their Russian liberators.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" gives an interesting general history of the Gulag, but it can be long-winded and dry in many parts. There's also a relatively new book out by Anne Applebaum, "Gulag, a History," which is much easier to read.