ESCAPE
FROM SIBERIA

About the author

Rod Piwowarski

Rod Piwowarski is a British engineer, inventor and businessman with a lifelong interest in technology, history and the remarkable stories that can otherwise disappear between generations.

An engineer by training, Rod spent more than three decades in the electronics industry, including fourteen years as a CEO. During his career he was involved in the development of numerous technology products and was co-inventor of a USB data logger. He now runs his own project management and engineering business in Salisbury, England.

Escape from Siberia: A Polish Airman’s Extraordinary Journey to Freedom grew from a much more personal story.

Rod is the grandson of Zdzisław Piwowarski, a Polish airman whose extraordinary wartime journey took him from occupied Poland and Soviet captivity to service with the Royal Air Force. He served with 300 Polish Bomber Squadron and was awarded both the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour. His remarkable aviation career continued after the war, including involvement in the Berlin Airlift and later service with the RAF.

But to Rod, Zdzisław was not simply a name in military records or a decorated airman. He was his grandfather.

Importantly, Zdzisław also left behind his own written memoirs — a personal account of his experiences, written by the man who had actually lived through them. Those recollections became the foundation of this book. Rod has worked to preserve his grandfather’s voice and memories while placing them within the wider historical story, supplementing them with family knowledge, surviving records and additional research.

The result is therefore more than a conventional biography. At its heart is Zdzisław’s own account of an extraordinary life, brought together and expanded by his grandson so that a story which might otherwise have remained within the family could be preserved for future generations.

Rod lives in Salisbury with his wife, Sharon. They have three children. He continues to work on engineering, technology and historical projects and remains fascinated by the ingenuity, resilience and determination of people faced with seemingly impossible circumstances.

Escape from Siberia is his first book.