Author Visit with Stefan Sokulsky

Name: Author Visit with Stefan Sokulsky
Start: 2023-08-02T11:00:00+10:00
End: 2023-08-02T12:00:00+10:00
Location: Muswellbrook

Muswellbrook Library

Wednesday, August 2 | 11am

Bookings are essential. Contact Muswellbrook Library on 6543 1913 to book

Light refreshments will be provided.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

This book comprises the wartime recollections of my parents, Maria (née Keil) and Leon Sokulsky, who lived under Nazi rule during the Second World War.

Their accounts as I was growing up always fascinated me and fostered my love for history. For that reason, I decided to interview my parents so that we could keep for posterity a record of their experiences.

In late 2018 I came across the recordings that had lain there in a box for nearly thirty years. It was then that I decided, for the first time since the interviews, to listen to them.

As I sat there with headphones on I found myself transported into the past – not just to 1998 but back to the 1920s. It was an eerie and emotional experience to hear my parents speak again. I knew then that I needed to write.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

My name is Stefan Sokulsky. I’m pleased to introduce myself and share with you my family historical publication based around the inspiring lives of my parents. I have written an authentic and personal account of their recollections of their time in Ukraine and Germany during World War Two.

Hearing my parents speak of their past, instilled in my six siblings and myself an incredible fascination for those tumultuous times, as well as, an enduring respect and admiration for the unerring resilience they showed in the face of enormous adversity, and ultimately inspired me to record and write ‘In Their Own Words’.

I was born in England in 1962 and together with my family, we emigrated to Australia in 1969. I grew up in Elermore Vale in Newcastle. I went on to become a PE teacher. However, my love of history has always stayed with me. Because of my background and knowledge of the period, I am sometimes asked by other teachers to speak to their classes. Just as my parents were keen to share their stories with me, I know that they would have wanted those memories and recollections to continue to be told.

In my younger days I was a very keen footballer and now enjoy coaching others. Hobby-wise I love to write songs on my guitar. I also keep my mind active, especially playing chess, pool, and cards with friends.

I have been married for over thirty happy years and have two wonderful children.