THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Leon Kahn survives the Holocaust in Nazi occupied Poland by joining the partisans.   The partisans fight the Germans and local Nazi sympathizers from the forests.

Leon Kahn grew up in Eisiskes, Poland, born in 1925 as Leibke Kaganowicz.  Jews lived in Eisiskes from the 1100’s, the town under control of Poles, Lithuanians or Russians, depending on the era.  On October 5th, 1939, Germany and Russia conquer Poland, Germany, the western half, Russian, the eastern half.  Eisiskes’ Jews feel safer with the Russian conquerors, German anti-Jewish sentiment, well known.  Life goes on as usual under the Russians, until June 1941, the Germans annex Lithuania and enter Eisiskes.

The Lithuanians waste no time carrying out the Nazi edicts, quickly proving to their Nazi brethren how anxious they are to rid Lithuania of its Jews; their brutality frightens the Poles, impresses the Germans.

Escape for Jews with small children and grandparents, proves impossible.  Leibke, his father, brother, sister, mother and grandmother attempt to stay together but soon, separate as Leibke’s mother refuses to leave her ailing mother.

Leibke, his father, sister and brother tired of moving town to town and hiding in barn after barn, dependent on the goodness of the stranger, moved to the forest and joined the partisans.  Hiding with the partisans, they find relative safety, shelter and food.  Leibke begins to differ with his father in that the partisans rely on local farms for food.  Food supplies, like weapons, were not easy acquisitions.  Sometimes the partisans used force; with this, Leon’s father disagreed.  Leon leaves his family to join the fighting force, but he would eventually reunite with his family and go into hiding again.  When Leon’s brother is killed by a traitor, they rejoin the partisans; Leon joins the fighting unit and learns techniques in sabotage.

One day the Polish Home Army, the A.K., the Armia Krojowa, attacks their partisan camp.  Leon finds he has little to live for except revenge; he is not yet twenty.

After the war, Leon becomes head of the police station in Verena.  He identifies the Poles and Lithuanian collaborators.  Upon occasion, justice is served swiftly on a particular collaborator; the Russians always demanded proof of the alleged war crimes. Sometimes, the collaborators were sent to prison.

Later, he joined the organization Bricha and helped Jews escape from the East to the West.  Leon’s dream after the war was to locate his family in America.  His uncle wrote to him wanting him to come to New York but the immigration quota would not allow it.  Instead, Leon immigrated to Canada where he married and raised a family.

 

Poignant, moving, detailed description.