Light shed on Greece and Poland's entwined past

Polish journalist Dionisios Sturis wondered recently what it was that attracted him to cover the journey that refugees from Syria made through Greece. He concluded that it was the "refugee gene," as he calls it, that he carries.

Sturis's family fought with or supported the Communist Party-founded Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) in the 1946-49 Greek Civil War. They joined the thousands of Greeks who fled the country after the communists were defeated in 1949, mostly remaining in exile until socialist PASOK came to power in 1981 and allowed them to return to their homeland.

In the meantime, though, many of the exiles forged new lives abroad. Sturis's relatives settled in Poland, along with some 14,000 others from Greece. He examines their stories in the book "Nowe Zycie" (New Life), which has recently been published in Poland.

The book was a personal journey for...