Peter Dick attended school during the Holodomor Famine (1932-33), and nearly starved to death.  During World War II, Peter’s family was a casualty of relocations as part of ethnic cleansing. His wife and daughter were sent to Siberia, and he was sentenced to a Gulag work camp. They were separated, and he never saw his wife Susie again.

Peter was sent to Berezniki, an industrial town in the Ural Mountains. He worked there under harsh conditions for many years. Eventually, he remarried and had two daughters. A few years after Stalin died, many Gulag prisoners were released from their life sentences. In 1957, Peter and Katie were permitted to leave Siberia, but forced to remain in exile.

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After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Peter and Katie emigrated to Germany, along with their children and grandchildren.