And Heaven Shed No Tears

"Henry Herzog survived the liquidation of the Rzeszow ghetto and endured terrible hardships in forced labor camps until he managed to escape and join the partisans and take revenge on those who had killed most of his family. From their home in Cracow, Henry, his parents, his sister Fela, and his two brothers Szymon and Nathan were forced to move into the Rzeszow ghetto. The family survived initial round-ups for the death camps by securing "safe and essential" jobs working for the German railways. The Herzog family also managed to place their daughter with a sympathetic Polish family." "Herzog documents the increasing severity of Nazi rule in Rzeszow and the complicity of the Jewish council (the Judenrat) and Jewish police in the round-ups for the growing deportations to the Belzec concentration death camp. One of these deportations took his parents to their death. Just before the last transport in 1943, Herzog, his brothers, and his sister received forged identity papers from two Poles in the underground movement. As they prepared to flee Poland, Henry's brothers were caught, tortured, and killed by the Gestapo. Henry and his sister escaped to Hungary where Fela found refuge with another sympathetic family. Soon afterward Henry was betrayed and arrested. He escaped captivity and fled to Slovakia. Arrested again he was put on a train to the concentration camps. On the way Henry escaped by jumping off the train. He wandered into the Tatra Mountains where he finally encountered a group of Russian partisans, the Stalinova Brigade. Henry joined their group and tells how he avenged the deaths of his brothers and parents many times over."--BOOK JACKET.