THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Leon Wells served in the Death Brigade, in the Janowska Death Camp, outside Lvov, Poland.  The Death Brigade was no doubt one of the most difficult and most horrific atrocities forced upon Jews by the Nazis.  Workers on the Death Brigade were requisitioned to destroy the bodies of fellow Jews murdered by the Nazis.   Wells states that what his fellow Jews wanted at the time of their death, was that the truth be known.  In summation of his memoir, Wells poses the question of whether or not anyone will care.

Leon Wells begins his memoir with stories of his childhood, his family, his school, his town of Stojanov; his life before the war.  Leon writes of his happy childhood spent with his siblings, four sisters, Ellen, Rachel, Judith and Bina and two brothers, Aaron and Jacob.  He writes of sharing weekends and holidays with his family, of his grandmother’s and his mother’s cooking, and of walks to town with his father, a respected businessman.

The author notes the love his family held for Chasidim, a religious branch of Judaism, and of their belief that goodness can be found in every man.  In the fall of 1939, at fourteen years old, Leon had just finished the first year of gymnasium, (high school) when the war broke out and the terror began.

In the summer of 1941, as the Germans moved in to eastern Poland, the Russians retreated.  The Germans and Ukrainians waste no time in round ups of the Jews who are forced to do hard labor in unbearable conditions.  The systematic reign of terror begins; many Jews are killed.  Wells is sent to Janowska Concentration Camp.  Wells describes the beatings, the cruelty, the brutalities, the humiliations, the starvation, the laborious work, the freezing cold, the diseases, the illnesses, the lack of sleep, the deaths, and the devastating loneliness, separated from his family. 

In August of 1943, the Death Brigade is forced to dig pits; 15pits at 165 feet long, to hold nine thousand corpses.  The Nazis face a new challenge, how to dispose of the bones that will not burn.  At the end of 1943, the inmates of Janowska Camp understand the Germans are losing, that they can be defeated and begin to prepare options for escape.

After liberation, Wells registers as a survivor.  He is the 184th Jew from Lvov and surrounding areas found to survive.  In 1941, there were 150,000 Jews in Lvov, alone.

The Russian Justice Department sets up a special section for war crimes to prepare for the upcoming Nuremburg Trials.  Wells helps in preparation for the trials and gives testimony against the Nazis at the trial.

 

Leon Wells’ memoir is one of the most chilling in Holocaust literature.