Overview

Suddenly two pairs of black boots appeared in the shrubbery near us… I looked up very, very slowly, from the boots to the uniforms and all the way up to the caps against the blue sky, and then quickly looked down… Two German officers… Finally, one of them addressed us in German, his attitude business-like, but with a touch of compassion, 'Mensch, du hast keine Zukunft (Man, you have no future).' In a Land of Forest and Darkness is a story of coming of age in the shadow of the Holocaust. Sara Lustigman was fifteen years old when the Nazis occupied her small town in eastern Poland, and her whole world shattered. Sara’s personal story provides a glimpse into the lives of her family, friends and townspeople, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, from immediately before WWII and during the years of the Nazi occupation: persecution, roundups, ghetto, slave labor, the “Final Solution”, escape to the forest, resistance groups and Soviet partisan units. Major events are portrayed alongside personal experiences – support in times of need, acts of betrayal, loves and disappointments, and often impossible dilemmas. All are described from a personal point of view, with frankness and sensitivity. The book also recounts the tale of Sara's future husband, Michael (Misha) Omelinski from Brest Litovsk. Misha too miraculously survived, and after hair-raising adventures joined a Soviet partisan group in the Polesia woods (in Belarus of today) and became a fierce partisan and fighter. It was in those woods that the two youngsters met and tied their fates until the end of the war and beyond.

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9789493231337

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Reviews

An unforgettable book about unforgettable people tested by unimaginable distress, deprivation, and naked horror. From comfortable lives in a small town to escaping destruction by taking to the forest, theirs is a story of loss and survival through determination and, when it was most needed, luck. It is also a story of love and continuity. Highly recommended and difficult to put down. - Thomas A. Thank all of you that wrote this book. I pray that as many people as possible get to read it. The daily horror before and during the war is unfathomable. As a human being, I will never be able to understand the magnitude of the killing of innocent men, women and children. In my daily prayers, I want all of those murdered to know that one person will always pray for their souls. - Dr Dale Peter VanDe Viver In A Land of Forest and Darkness: The Holocaust Story of Two Jewish Partisans is by Sara Lustigman Omelinski. After working many years at Yad Vashem, Yossi Milo, Sara’s son, decided to finally put Sara’s story down so it would be recorded for others to read. He first thought to do it just for family; but Sara wanted people to read her story and remember what happened. If not for her and others like her who tell their stories, we would only know the “official version” and not how the ordinary people thought and felt. Their individual names and stories would be simply lost in the mists of time. Yossi also used his Father’s testimony to clarify some parts of Sara’s story as well as other documents and records he researched. It is the story of a young girl, a family, a town, and a culture that was erased from memory by the actions of Hitler and his minions. Except for many uncovered mass graves dotting the countryside of Europe, complete families and towns never existed without the stories told by others. Sara was the middle child of three girls in her family. At the age of ten, she entered six years of hell which left her without immediate family and only memories to keep them alive. Much of that time was spent with her family trying to survive the various actions and depravities of the German occupiers. In an attempt to keep at least one member of her family alive, Sara left the uneasy life in a village near Sobibor and her family to join the partisans. Here, she fought, wept, loved, and lived with others who had no idea what had happened to their families. Unfortunately, Sara knew. Her story bridges the years of the Holocaust and creates a path to her future as a wife and mother. It takes her from Poland to Israel. Along the path, she meets others who impact her life and then disappear; yet they help make her who she is. The book is fantastic. It is compelling to read, you simply have to know what happens next. How did a young girl like her survive? - P. Blevins

Author Information

Sara Lustigman was born in eastern Poland in 1924, and was 15 years old when WW2 broke and the Nazies entered her small town. In the following three years of the holocaust she lost her whole family and barely survived as a member of a Jewish partisan group, and later a Soviet partisan unit in the woods of Belarus. After the war she married Misha Omelinski, a partisan fighter from a nearby town, and in 1948 they arrived in Israel. Here they built a new life and a new family. MIsha passed away in 1999. Sara is now 97 years old and lives in Israel.

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