A Footnote to my Epitaph

Survival against the odds 

This book is a re-edit and re-print of the original work first published in 1992. Re-published in October, 2022, this new edition has a new ISBN: 987-0-9924546-7-8 and is available on this website for purchase..

The books tells the story of Leonid Sidorevich Repa – or simply ‘Peter’ Repa  as he was mostly known in Australia. Born in the Vinnitsa Oblast of Ukraine in 1920 he was of military age when the war between the Soviet Union and Germany broke out and, between 1941 and 1945, he spent one thousand days at the front. Near the end of the war he was captured and imprisoned in Stalag 326 at Osnabruck in Germany.

Readers should note that, at the time of the War, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and a significant proportion of the Red Army were Ukrainians. Ukraine itself suffered a vast scale of human suffering and destruction in the German invasion.

Fearing return to Stalin’s regime he became a refugee and was re-settled in Australia. The book describes his happy childhood as the son of a ‘kulak’ flour mill owner, then to his wartime experience, to life in Germany post war as a stateless person to his life in Australia’s Hunter Valley as, at first, a refugee and subsequently as an Australian citizen.

While the book is not directly about the current Russia/Ukraine conflict, it gives valuable background to those interested in the current conflict.

The main theme of the book is the Victory of Hope over despair.

Click here to order A Footnote to my Epitaph