A Jew in the Woods: Pages from a Diary

Of the 35,000 Lithuanian Jews trapped by the Germans in the Kovno Ghetto, most did not survive. Berl Kagan, a 34-year-old journalist and political activist, was among the few who escaped the ghetto before it was liquidated. Yet this bid for freedom was only the first step in a protracted quest to cheat almost-certain death. With his wife and sister-in-law, Kagan spent nine months in the forest, facing near-starvation, freezing temperatures, and the ever-present threat of capture and murder....