Witness to Annihilation (H)

One of the few Jews to survive the Nazi aktion in the Polish city of Lvov in August 1942, Drix was imprisoned in the Janowska concentration camp. Nearly every member of his family, including his wife and young daughter, perished. His highly detailed memoir recounts his life in the ghetto under German occupation, his year in the camp, his escape and the year he spent hiding in the countryside until the Russian liberation. In addition to Nazi atrocities, Drix describes the anti-Semitic policies of the Soviets after the German defeat. He remarried and, with his wife, left Lvov illegally for Western-occupied Germany; in 1956 they settled in New York City. Along with delineating acts of brutality, Drix also testifies to the goodness of the many people who aided him as an escapee. (Aug.)