Barbara Wojcik

Barbara Wojcik came to tell this story after recognizing the intersection of her family history and her passion for history. In 2015, reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, she recognized the parallels to a story her father had mentioned to her about her uncle. Despite the distance between her and Bud’s family, the years gone by, and the challenges of French language documents and communication, Barbara began a six-year process of research, travel, and writing. She found the families of French helpers and forged alliances with them to discover people and events from the airmen’s six-month saga through Nazi occupied France. Aided by her husband Jim, she worked to tell a heroic story in an engaging and accessible style.