A Hope At the End Of the World – Facts

The book starts in July 1944.

Helena and her sister are in a refugee camp in Tehran, Iran. On August 9, 1942, a second evacuation began, which lasted until September 1. Polish evacuees had to travel by train to Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran.

Before that, Helena and her family had been in Vorkuta, Siberia. The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp was a major GULAG labour camp in the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta from 1932 to 1962. From 1939, Polish prisoners were held at Vorkuta following the Occupation of Poland until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

When Helena takes the place of her sister to travel to New Zealand, the party first stop at Isfahan, where there is an orphanage. Isfahan is a city in central Iran.

Then they take a train in Karachi. Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan.

Then they embark in Bombay. Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) is a densely populated city on India’s west coast.

The children travel on the General Randall and arrive in Wellington.

The children are welcomes by Peter Fraser, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, and Kazimierz Wadzicki, the Polish envoy.

Peter Fraser (28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949.

Count Kazimierz Antoni von Granöw Wodzicki (4 February 1900 – 15 June 1987) was a Polish-born New Zealand mammalogist and ornithologist. He served as a Consul-General to the Polish government-in-exile in New Zealand towards the end of the Second World War and aided numerous Polish refugees to settle there.

The children are taken to Pahiatua, a camp which was called Little Poland.

Pahiatua is a rural service town in the south-eastern North Island of New Zealand.

There is a lot of information about the Maori culture which Helena learns.

Haka is the Maori singing before battle. Haka are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.

Helena and the other children are taken to Palmerston for a visit. The Rangitane tribe is there. The town of Palmerston, in New Zealand’s South Island, lies 50 kilometres to the north of the city of Dunedin.

Marae is where the Maori gather. A marae is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies.

Helena is given a hei-tiki for protection. The hei-tiki is an ornamental pendant of the Māori of New Zealand. Hei-tiki are usually made of greenstone, and are considered a taonga (treasure) by Māori.

When we first meet James, he is in High Wycombe in the RAF, and he is part of the squadron bombing German cities. This is called carpet bombing. Carpet bombing is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land.

When Helena discovers that she is pregnant, she tries to find her former neighbours, but she is told that they have been sent to Somes Island, where there is an internment camp. Matiu / Somes Island is the largest of three islands in the northern half of Wellington Harbour. On 29 August 1939 Matiu / Somes Island was handed over from the Health Department to the Army and again shifted from quarantine station to internment camp, with the first group of internees arriving in late December 1939.Internees included German and Italian residents of New Zealand and men from Pacific Islands plantations.

When Helena moves to live with Gloria, James and Jack, she disembarks in Lyttelton. Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch.

The cattle station is in the Canterbury Plains. The Canterbury Plains are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region.

Helena hears about the liberation of Poland. Virtually all of Poland in its prewar boundaries had been liberated by Soviet forces by the end of January 1945. After Germany’s surrender, Soviet troops occupied most of eastern Europe, including Poland.