Roxana Spicer Tells Her Story
As a child, Roxana Spicer would sometimes wake up to the deep, resonant sounds of the Red Army Choir drifting through her home. She would tiptoe downstairs to find her mother, cigarette in one hand and a Black Russian in the other, singing along in a language foreign to Netherhill, their small Saskatchewan village. Her mother, Agnes Spicer, was an enigma. Everyone knew she was Russian and had survived Nazi captivity, but beyond that, Agnes’ past was a mystery, shrouded in silence and shadow.
This silence sparked Roxana’s lifelong quest to uncover her mother’s past—a journey that spanned three decades and multiple continents. As a journalist and documentarian, Roxana traveled to Germany, notorious concentration camps, Russia, and beyond, piecing together a story her mother had kept locked away for years. Agnes had been a combat soldier in the Red Army, captured by the Nazis during World War II, and held as a prisoner for three harrowing years. She bore a tattoo on her arm, a stark reminder of her time in captivity, but she never spoke of it.
The deeper Roxana dug, the more she realized just how much her mother had endured. But Agnes’ fiery spirit, resilience, and love for life helped her survive the darkest days of the war. Now, after years of research, Roxana has finally told her mother’s story in The Traitor’s Daughter, a deeply personal yet historical exploration of one woman’s incredible journey from Soviet Russia to small-town Saskatchewan.
A Lifelong Curiosity
“I first took pen to paper when I was 10 years old,” Roxana recalls. “My mom was such a forceful personality, and there were all these stories about her—her Russian accent, her time in the war, the mysterious tattoo on her arm that she kept hidden under sweaters even in the summer. There was even a rumor that she could take a handful of kitchen knives and throw them across the room, creating a perfect pattern around a frying pan on the wall. All of these stories added up to a great curiosity about Mom.”
From an early age, Roxana was captivated by her mother’s mystery. She began making notes, scribbling down stories, but as life moved on—high school, university, a budding career as a journalist—the notes were set aside.
It wasn’t until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 that Roxana’s curiosity reignited. Agnes was finally able to return to Russia to visit her sister, Nela—a reunion that opened the floodgates of memory. Roxana, armed with a camera, documented every moment. “It was then I realized there was so much more to my mother’s story than I had ever imagined—the history in Germany, her capture, the camp, and the tattoo. What did all that mean?”
Discovering the Past
Roxana’s journalistic investigation took her across Europe five or six times, to places like Bad Salzuflen, Germany, where her mother had been held as a POW slave laborer, and deep into Russia, where she met her aunt. Yet even as she uncovered pieces of her mother’s past, Roxana was met with resistance. “In Russia, family secrets are different. There’s an unspoken rule that some things should stay hidden,” she explains. Even Nela, who had shared stories of their childhood, grew reluctant to delve too deeply into the past. “It was like this was an area I didn’t have a right to know. Everyone was warm and welcoming, but I was met with a painful wall of resistance from my aunt near the end of her life. I ran into a wall of secrets everywhere I went.”
Back home, Agnes herself remained tight-lipped. “She didn’t want to talk about her time in the camps. It was too painful. I wanted to know, but I didn’t want to torture my own mother. It was a delicate balance—wanting to know, but also respecting her boundaries,” Roxana admits. It wasn’t until after Agnes passed away that Roxana explored the truth.
A Journey to Publication
Roxana’s journey to publication was as long and winding as her mother’s history. She spent years filming interviews, documenting her travels, and researching the complex history of the Second World War. But it wasn’t until a meeting with Beverly Slopen, one of Canada’s leading literary agents, that Roxana realized The Traitor’s Daughter needed to be a book. “Beverly loved the story from the start. She told me to write a draft and come back when it was ready,” Roxana says.
What Roxana thought would take eight months stretched into eight years. During that time, she uncovered details about her mother’s role as one of the almost million Red Army women sent to the front lines—an astonishing number. No country sent women to the front as combat soldiers. Only Russia. “I realized that my mother wasn’t just a survivor; she was part of a larger, incredible history.”
A Legacy of Love
For all the darkness Agnes had lived through, Roxana remembers her mother most for her joy. “She had this wonderful laugh and an ability to find pleasure in the simplest things. Despite everything, she came out of the war with a love for life.” It’s this duality—the darkness of war and the lightness of Agnes’ spirit—that Roxana captures so beautifully in her book.
The Traitor’s Daughter is more than just a biography; it’s a testament to the strength of women, the weight of secrets, and the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter. “I think the thing I miss most about my mom is her joy, her laughter. She never let the war break her, and that’s the legacy she left me.”
Roxana’s journey may have spanned decades, but with the publication of The Traitor’s Daughter, she has finally told her mother’s story—a story of survival, resilience, and love.
Agnes in the highway side Agnes’ Dinette: circa 1966
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