what a difference a week makes!

I haven't heard anything from Dareck or from the Ukrainian Embassy, the British Embassy suggested asking the Ukrainian Red Cross, who apparently do research, I bet they are kep busy. However my feelings have changed completely!
I have read Timothy Snyder's book and I have a very different perception of the whole situation. last year I met 2 Polish men, we did not really have a common language but I told them my father was Polish, from Kovel, the response was: 'That's Ukraine, thst's history.'  I rather resented what I saw as a glib respones but now I see what they meant.
My father was from Volhynia, this was never really in a Polish State, it was a multi cultural, multi ethnic area, in a larger area that was also multi cultural and multi ethnic. Eastern Europe did not have country boundaries in the same way that we know them now. Although I had read that the borders of Poland were changed after the 2  World Wars I was very naive to imagine this was a simpe excercise, it was not just a matter of drawing lines on a map, the processes took years and thousands of people died, on both sides. (Actually there were many sides and the population that suffered the most losses was the Jewish one.)
I will continue to read up on the area, and I will still try to find out about the route my father probably took to reach France, but I think I will now just rest with my British Nationality and the fact that my father came from Volhynia, in Eastern Europe.