Award-Winning WW2 Memoir Featured on "The Balancing Act" on Lifetime Television Wednesday, May 25

Terry Tegnazian, co-founder of Aquila Polonica Publishing, will appear on the popular morning show “The Balancing Act,” on Lifetime Television Wednesday, May 25, 2011. Tegnazian will talk to viewers about the award-winning World War II memoir, “The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt.”

Winner of the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best First Book (Nonfiction), author Rulka Langer’s book vividly describes protecting her family as Nazi German bombers rained death and destruction on the city of Warsaw during the first month of World War II.

Bestselling author Alan Furst (“Foreign Correspondent” and “The Spies of Warsaw”) calls “The Mermaid” “absolutely one of the best eyewitness accounts of WWII Poland that I ever read.”

Tegnazian tells host of “The Balancing Act,” Kristy Villa, that Aquila Polonica chose to publish “The Mermaid” because of the superb way Langer describes the impact of war on ordinary people.

“Most accounts of war are written by soldiers, statesmen or historians,” Tegnazian says. “This book shows war from the unusual viewpoint of a young working mother.”

When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Langer, a Vassar-educated career woman, was left in Warsaw to tend her two small children and elderly mother while her husband was posted abroad.

Through a combination of luck, intelligence and bravery, Langer and her children survived and eventually escaped to the United States from German-occupied Poland.

Langer, who died in 1993, wrote “The Mermaid” in 1942—shortly after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor triggered America’s entry into World War II. Langer wanted to explain to Americans the devastation of this war, and why it was so important to fight the Nazi German enemy.

Aquila Polonica added to “The Mermaid” more than 100 archival photographs, an epilogue by Langer’s son (8 years old in the book, now age 80), and supplemental historical material that sets the stage for unfolding events.

Aquila Polonica specializes in rescuing a lost piece of World War II history—the experience of Poland, one of the most heroic and tragic of the Allies. The Poles’ tenacity in the face of insurmountable odds inspires Tegnazian.

“Even an ordinary working mom like Rulka Langer,” Tegnazian says, “drew on an inner strength she never realized she had, until she was tested. That’s an important message for all of us—we’re stronger than we know.”

“The Balancing Act,” produced by O2 Media, Inc., airs on Lifetime Television Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., (ET/PT). Check local listings for Mountain and Central times. For more information, please visit http://www.thebalancingact.com.

Aquila Polonica Publishing is dedicated to publishing, in English, the Polish experience of World War II with first-hand accounts, memoirs, photographs, artwork, poetry, literature and historical studies. For more information, please visit http://www.polandww2.com.

Debra Gendel
Aquila Polonica Publishing
10850 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 300
Los Angeles, CA 90024

This release was published on openPR.