STARS OF PR FEATURES A WOMAN WITH A MISSION TERRY TEGNAZIAN Thursday, January 28, 2010

The January 28th broadcast features a high-powered Los Angeles attorney turned publisher who wants to introduce American readers to the little-known heroism and suffering of the Polish people during World War II. “Poland was the first Western Ally to fight the German war machine in World War II. The Polish experience in World War II is perhaps the most heroic and tragic of all the Allies,” she explains. “Yet Poland’s role remains in the shadows.” Tegnazian had burned out from a career as a successful entertainment lawyer. After a brief stint as a film producer, she began writing a novel with a supporting character who was a Polish fighter pilot in World War II. But her research uncovered a virtually unknown part of World War II. Tegnazian, who is not at all Polish, was so moved by the exceptional bravery and honor with which Poland faced the brutality of the war that she put aside her novel and formed a new publishing company, Aquila Polonica, to bring this lost story to the English-speaking world. Four years and several trips to Poland later, Tegnazian and her partner Stefan Mucha have acquired the rights to more than 30 books. The fledgling company’s first offering, published this year, is a rare eyewitness account of the Nazi German invasion of Poland. Current releases include The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt:War Through a Woman’s Eyes, 1939-1940 and The Ice Road:An Epic Journey from The Stalinist Labor Camps To Freedom.