How Languages Saved Me: A Polish Story of Survival review

I find languages fascinating. The fact that there are 7.5 billion people on Earth and the only two languages that are truly universal are math and music is mind boggling. I dabble in Japanese, French and Spanish, but it’s only at the tourist level. The languages that Tad Haska frequented in were the near fluent, able to save your life level of languages. He was a true polyglot whose abilities allowed him to escape, run and life past the horrors of WW II.

How Languages Saved Me: A Polish Story of Survival if written by Tadeusz Haska and Stefanie Naumann. The book was compiled by Naumann, who is Haska’s granddaughter, by using his journals and audio recordings.  If you’re at all curious about what war or what it takes to survive in the direst of situations then this is book that will captivate you from its start.

The book starts in earnest when Haska was 20 and Poland is being invaded by the Nazis. It’s a chaotic day that’s full of rumors and pride for one’s country, but things happen very quickly. He’s accused of being a spy. A school meeting is called and instead of information being disseminated all of the students are sent to a concentration camp. The Germans are getting rid of the educated class.

Haska had been wearing glasses since he was 13, but because he didn’t want to appear smart he refrained from them during this time. When the Nazi occupation started he relied on his language skills to survive. He was able to speak with Germans in a passable manner to where they thought he was from their country. At times he’d translate the news from Polish to German or vice versa. He wasn’t ‘friends’ with the Germans, but it was a working relationship-at least until he saw the writing on the wall.

From here he met his future wife, snuck out of the country, managed to rescue her from Poland and eventually got out of Europe. At times the book reads like an amazing tale of fiction that you’d compare to Indiana Jones, except this one had real-world results.

How Languages Saved Me is a short book, but in some ways it’s the perfect length. Had the book been longer it might have been padded or felt like it was being fluffed up to where it didn’t need to be. This is a book that will keep you locked in if you’re interested in tales of survival or how things really were for a Polish Jewish man in 1939.

Most of the books we review here are for kids in one way or another. This book is intended for those high school readers and above. However, those history inclined audiences will dive into the book and wonder how people could ever act in that cruel of a manner.