Mother Don’t Cry

Ryszard Wiland was torn from an idyllic rural childhood in pre-World War Two Poland and with his family and neighbours, sent on the tragic path of the displaced person; suffering in a Siberian work-camp, destitution in Uzbekistan, refugee camps in Africa and finally, a bitter-sweet life in Australia.



Mother Don’t Cry is the story of a little boy who was denied his childhood in the cruellest way. But it is also the inspirational story of his mother’s courage to seek a better life for her surviving children. Mother Don’t Cry is a moving and timely tribute to the powerlessness and heroism of the refugee, the banished and the exiled.