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| Book Review |
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| A touching and stirring Holocaust biography of the author's parents' time as
a young couple in the Vina Ghetto in Lithuania and in the Jewish resistance
movement. Until Our Last Breath uses the author's parents' narrative as a thread that leads the reader through a collective story of the Vilna ghetto, the partisans of Vilna, and the wider theme of world history. Zenia, the author's mother, was born and raised in Vilna. Leizer, his father, fled to Vilna to escape the Nazi invasion of his hometown. Zenia and Leizer met in the ghetto, fell in love, and were married by one of the last remaining rabbis days before the liquidation of the ghetto. Leizer was friends with Zionist leader Abba Kovner, and became a member of the Vilna ghetto underground. Shortly before the total liquidation, Zeni and Leizer, along with about 120 members of the underground escaped to the Rudnicki forest about 10 miles from Vilna and became the Jewish partisan fighting group led by Abba Kovner-who were also known as the Avengers. Until Our Last Breath is intensely personal, painstakingly researched, and a lasting memorial to Vilna, the freedom fighters of Vilna, and the author's family. Michael Bart, the author has spent over ten years researching his parents' past. Laurel Corona, the writer is a tenured professor of English and Humanites at San Diego City College. |