Justa’s Escape

A Journey from WWII Ukraine

By: Justina Neufeld, Russell Binkley - contributor

Narrated by: Alyssa Simmons

In this real-life adventure, Justa, youngest of ten children in a Mennonite family in WWII era Ukraine, revisits a childhood in totalitarian Stalinist USSR. When authorities swoop down in the middle of the night to seize neighbor’s fathers, Justa begins to dread the dark. Would her beloved papa be next? As both armies—German and Russian—approach, thirteen-year-old Justa and her family hurriedly pack their wagon to flee. What valuables should they take? What must they leave behind? How will the absent brothers find them? Will the family ever be whole again? What dangers do they face? In the end, who will survive?

©2022 Justina Neufeld and Russell Binkley (P)2024 Resource Publications

Critic reviews

"Justina Neufeld's story of her escape to Western Europe and North America during and after World War II is one of the most widely told stories of the Mennonite experience. She has told her story to hundreds of audiences and recorded it in print with her book A Family Torn Apart. Now she has written a new version for young adult readers. Another generation will now have the opportunity to get in touch with a remarkably remembered dramatic past."

--James C. Juhnke, coauthor of The Missing Peace: The Search for Nonviolent Alternatives in United States History

"In the lyric simplicity of free verse, this young girl's coming-of-age story is heartrending for its honesty. Yet, it is a tribute to life and hope in its recall of the specific details of village life. Memorably recorded details tell us we were alive in this world and that our lives mattered. . . . Faithfulness to a girl's real lived experience makes this story beautiful, timeless, powerful, and necessary."

--Raylene Hinz Penner, author of Searching for Sacred Ground: The Story of Chief Lawrence Hart, Mennonite

"Justina Neufeld shares in riveting detail the story of her hardships in and escape from war-torn Ukraine, the scattering of her family, her rescue by Peter and Elfrieda Dyck, and her eventual passage to the United States, where she found a home. She recreates the world of her childhood and takes the reader on the difficult travail across Europe. This book provides readers with a journey from which they will emerge grateful and enlightened."

--Beverley Olson Buller, author of A Prairie Peter Pan