The Way Back ( Długi Marsz movie) Colin Farrell, Ed Harris

Polish Army lieutenant who was imprisoned by the Soviets after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland. In a ghost-written book called The Long Walk, he claimed that in 1941 he and six others had escaped from a Siberian Gulag camp and walked over 6500 km (4000 miles) south, through the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and the Himalayas to finally reach British India in the winter of 1942.The Long Walk was ghost-written by Ronald Downing based on conversations with Rawicz. It was released in the UK in 1956 and has sold over half a million copies worldwide and has been translated into 25 languages.[1] As of 2010 a film based on the book is in post-production. The working title is The Way Back.

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If that's the truth, that would be the first Hollywood movie related to WW2 and Poland without Jewish Holocaust as the main focus. Are the miracles possible?

Apparently so, i thought i wouldn't see it in my lifetime.

Merged thread:
The Long Walk

An interesting article about the new film about an escape from Siberia...
bbc.co.uk/news/world-11900920

it seems that the research into the making of the film would also make a good film.

a nice little who done it.

Have you already read about expedition of 3 young Polishmen inspired with Long Walk book. They've just come back from the journey. They say that Gliński was right and Rawicz descriptions doesn't fit the truth.

More in English here:
explorersweb.com/world/news.php?id=19794

Fascinating. Thanks

I remember my mum reading the book years ago.

leonie glinski posts on 1/26/2010 5:38:55 PM

well you wanted to know if the story of Witold Glinski was true.. well yes it is. He his my grandfather. There are piles of documentation compiled by a lady working for the american government.. documenting my grandad's capture and escape.. she had even interviewed the doctor that treated him in India when he was picked up by the British navy, where he was put into an induced coma for a month due to the severity of his condition....She was trying to locate "Mr Smith"... The reasons for not staying in contact or not remaining friends... are to me pretty obvious... if you were escaping the less you know about someone the better... the less you can tell if captured.... also my grandad described some of the individuals that escaped... they all came with a history.. and weren't necessarily the people that he would of wanted to associate with afterwards...The reason he didnt say anything before... not only because of the psychological aspects.. but to protect the remainder of the family... he managed to find them a few years ago, his sister has since visited england after 60 years of thinking he died in the prisoner of war camp... and this is the last thing i will say..all my grandad has ever wanted was for the true story to be told... the book is not fully correct in places... however my grandad has never receieved any financial gain from the story or the film that is due to come out.. he has always maintained it would be disrespectful to the people that lost their lives... So therefore he has no reason to lie.. He is an amazing man and deserves the up most admiration for what he went through!

leonie glinski posts on 1/28/2010 6:46:05 PM

In response to your reply... you are entitled to your own opinion.. based on purely your judgement..You are right the story was not stolen by Slavomir... but by an individual who worked for the telegraph who passed the records to Slavomir... again there is evidence and documentation for this unlike your opinion...The claim about the diary i have never heard.. and I agree it is not likely that my grandad would of given anything to a fraud, who may i say again.. that there is evidence stating he signed an agreement to be allowed out of a prison of war camp because he agreed to fight for the russians!! proving he did not escape!!! AS for waiting 50 odd years.... do you not think that just maybe if you had been through something so traumatic.. that you might just want to try to move on with a new chapter in your life... believe me this was not easy for my grandad.. unlike the simpleness of your patronising comments... also he would of still been classed as a prisoner of war.. to protect himself and the remainder of his family he's hardly going to tell the world!!..I have no problems with Slavomir writing a book... but stealing anothers identity is criminal... and as for your last comment about jumping on the band wagon.. you obviously did not read what i wrote in my last entry about respect for others... he will never ever want any financial benefit for what he went through... as he has far more dignity and value for others that some can only dream of!

Mr Witold Glinski

You will forever have my respect and admiration.

what is that (the thing you've posted)?

You should read the article in the OP first, Zeitgrek. Then you will understand that there is a controversy. After that, welcome to the world of Google.

Not sure if you are aware but evidence was produced a few years ago to refute Slavomir Rawicz's version of events. As you will no doubt know, the story was originally written and told by Slavomir Rawicz and ghost-written by Ronald Downing (A British Journalist)

There is evidence that the escape didin fact happen, however it wasn't Slavomir Rawicz who was the escapee, in facy he wasn't even part of the group of seven at all as British & Russian documentation has been produced to place Rawicz in Iran (Persia at the time). Rawicz had been released as part of the 1942 general amnesty.

The escapee was in fact Witold Glinski and the story came into Rawicz's possesion "by foul means or fair."

The above posts are posts, posted on a forum by Leonie Glinski defending her Grandfather shortly after he came forward to reveal the truth behind the story.

Witold's Revelation


mirror/news/top-stories/2009/05/16/the-greatest-escape-war-hero-who-walked-4-000-miles-from-siberian-death-camp-115875-21364916

Part of the reason why the film was renamed to The Way Back and there is no character named Slavomir in the film.


The story about the book broke as far back as 2006 which was pretty soul destroying as I had believed every sentence.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6098218.stm

I am in fact delighted that Mr. Glinski came forward.

I know the whole controversy.

Yea i made a thread about it months ago... The Way Back ( Długi Marsz movie) Colin Farrell, Ed Harris

I am the guy who wrote about the 3 Polish guys on Explorersweb and the debate is going at its fullest on mu homepage and over Christmas and New year I will publish three articles on this intriguing subject. However, I would really like to get in touch with Witold Glinski, can anybody help me? Thanks in advance M

This is pointless you fooks, the point is a Pole made an epic escpae and they're making a movie about it, which Pole is from our POV not so relevant.

Well, Houdini did quite well in fame terms :)

Hopefully this film will receive critical acclaim, and be successful at the box office, thereby leading to the cinematizing of Ferdinand Ossendowski's amazing journey through Siberia and Mongolia so vividly recounted in his book Beasts, Men And Gods. It would be very interesting to see Tushegoun Lama on the silver screen. What would the world make of an intrepid Buddhist Kalmuk superman? And what about the Baron Ungern Von Sternberg?

Oh good,at least we will be spared the sight of the escapees seeing a Yheti then......
Its hardly controversial to say that many many brave Polish men and women made perilous journeys to reach freedom and join the Polish forces under Anders etc .

But the whole Long walk is a nightmare for those torn between wanting to promote the Polish efforts in WW2 and actually wanting to know the truth.

Mind you,at least there is a nasty british journilist for some of you guys to pin all the blame on :)

For those who didn't watch it yet, enjoy.
putlocker.com/file/46Z09WAAQCSGC0CS#

My family lived in Silesia for generations. We're Polish/Germans or Hanysy or whatever you want to call us.

My grandpa was recruited by Wehrmacht during WWII as scout-sniper and he was set to eastern front. The German army was decimated under Stalingrad as you all know.

... He spent 10 yeas in Siberia camp as a Polish - Russian - German translator and that's why Russians let him stay alive for so long. To translate...

The first winter my grandpa's camp was situated on a potato field. He and his buddies ripped the floor out than carved out the potatoes from the frozen ground and slept with them overnight so they could try to eat it in morning.

He was shot in both knees and stabbed in the chest with a bayonet. That's what he told me...

eventuality he was able to escape in mid 50's and returned to Silesia to his family.

he survived and therefore I'm here.

I am gonna watch it:

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=87kezJTpyMI

I watched it; it was brutal but good.

I know an older person here in PA who's family was deported by Stalin to Kazakhstan where he was born, lived in a village called Stalino (how appropriate) 3 of his brothers and sisters starved to death. They gave them little food and worked them long hours, they weren't meant to survive. In the late 50s after de-Stalinization they were allowed to go back to Poland.

I lived in PA for more than a decade before i moved to TX, I know a lot of Polish there and I've heard a lot of interesting stories as well.

Just saw the movie. It was awsome!

One of the best soundtracks ever made in my opinion!
youtube.com/watch?v=Ugi3Ke-IEhA

I just saw it too, yep Hollywood, yep not quite as devastating as that reality must have been but a great film all the same.

Actually it was the best film I have seen in a long time.

There is some doubt about that too, however I read an interview with a guy who takes care of Polish war archives in the US and he found evidence of similar travel - a bill for the hospitalization of a group of Poles who entered India through the Himalayas. He also said that the conditions in SU were so harsh that the "legal" way to the Anders Army after the amnesty of the Poles was equally dramatic to very many Poles and many died on their way, despite the fact that they didn't have to hide.