The Heavens Are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod

by Avrom Bendavid-Val, Jonathan Safran Foer (Preface by)

Overview

A magical place. A lost history: Trochenbrod, the setting for EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, is rediscovered for a new generation. Trochenbrod was the only freestanding, fully realized Jewish town in history. It began with a few Jewish settlers searching for freedom from the Russian czars' oppressive policies, which included the forced conscription of one son from each Jewish family household throughout Russia. This scene of ethnic harmony was soon shattered, as Trochenborad vanished in 1941-her residents slaughtered, her homes, buildings, and factories razed to the ground. Yet even the Nazis could not destroy the spirit of Trochenbord, which has lived on in stories and legend about a little piece of heaven, hidden deep in the forest. "The definitive history of this definitive place. if this book feels more fantastical than my novel, or any novel you've ever read, it is because of Trochenbrod's ingenuity, the Holocaust's ferocity, and Bendavid-Val's heroic research and pitch-perfect story-telling." -Jonathan Safran Foer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605982915
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/16/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Avrom Bendavid-Val’s father grew up in Trochenbrod and regaled him with tales of his childhood there. Avrom specialized in economic development and has traveled the world with the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He retired in 2007 and lives in Washington, DC.

Editorial Reviews

Unique and compelling. it is more than a story about Trochenbrod; it is a story of rediscovery and redemption.

Father Patrick Desbois

The definitive history of this definitive place. If this book feels more fantastical than my novel, or than any novel you’ve ever read, it is because of Trochenbrod’s ingenuity, the Holocaust’s ferocity, and Bendavid-Val’s heroic research and pitch-perfect storytelling.

Jonathan Safran Foer

Bendavid-Val, a specialist in economic development and environmental management, revisits the site of a lost town, Trochenbrod, and celebrates its vigor before Nazi oppression. The author recalls his father's stories of Trochenbrod, Ukraine, a thriving center for commerce and academics before being diminished by world wars, forced labor, and slaughter. Most disturbing are Bendavid-Val's account of a proud Jewish community brought to their knees through humiliation, brutality, and betrayal by their neighbors. Finally razed to the ground by the Nazis, the town, home to more than 6,000 people, effectively vanished, leaving only 60 survivors. Thoroughly researched, this book brings the mythical town to life, wonderfully preserving a memorable segment of Jewish lore. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Bendavid-Val, a retired economic development expert whose father grew up in this "lost town," provides a vividly told and culturally relevant history of the place popularly introduced in Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Everything Is Illuminated. (Foer provides the preface here.) The town of Trochenbrod, in western Ukraine (then a republic of the U.S.S.R.), was during its existence from the early 1800s to its destruction in the Holocaust in 1944 a medium-sized farming and craftsman town that has had the distinction of being the only Jewish town in a region fearful of Jews. Little physically remains today beyond a monument to those who were massacred there. Intertwining his own research with the meticulously documented, gripping personal histories of Trochenbrod's survivors, Bendavid-Val crafts a well-researched, detailed, and eminently readable work. VERDICT This is an essential read for anyone interested in religious history, the culture and history of World War II, or Jewish history, as Bendavid-Val shares not only the culture and customs of Slavic Jews before the 1930s but also the long-lasting and deeply felt impact of the Holocaust on the survivors.—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

Library Journal

A methodical chronicle of a once-thriving farming town in western Ukraine that was obliterated by the Nazis and resurrected by witnesses' testimonies.

Bendavid-Val's father grew up in Trochenbrod and emigrated as a young man, skirting the Holocaust, but the author craved to know more about the small town's history. In 1997, he visited the area and spoke extensively to early survivors. While viewing the mass grave site, he encountered an elder who "had been waiting over fifty years for someone to ask him about it." Bendavid-Val embarks on a journey through the history of the town, the setting for Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Everything Is Illuminated (2002). Trochenbrod was essentially a vibrant Jewish town, with a turn-of-the-century population of 1,600. Farming in the marshland was difficult, and the Czarist army demanded conscription. Many youths emigrated elsewhere, especially to America, although there was also a Zionist movement, and even a Catholic church built in the late '20s, thanks to Polish Prince Radziwill. The town endured domination by the Polish, Soviets and Nazis, respectively, though since the last great war the villagers believed, naively, that the Germans presented a more tractable authority than the Russians. By June 1941, the Nazis had put in place a system of occupation, terror and murder. The anti-Jewish Ukrainian Nationalists working with the Germans assured the Jews' destruction, and during a few days in August 1942, most of the 4,500 Jewish inhabitants were shot and tossed in pits. The author ends this heartfelt account with three testimonies by people who somehow escaped that fate (only 60 survived).

A well-organized resurrection of yet another lost memory of the Holocaust era.

Kirkus Reviews