Holocaust by Bullets
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Information on Alex Levin's Book
Under the Yellow & Red Stars Alex Levin Due for release in June 2009 I feel my brother’s hand, trembling but strong, grab onto mine. I hear his words, urging me to run, take hold of my body and move my legs. We run, his hand holding mine… to me it feels like freedom.
Under the Yellow & Red Stars is the remarkable story of a Jewish boy swept up by the horrors of World War II. The harrowing tale of Alex Levin’s survival in the forests of Poland, it also portrays his struggle to build a new life in the oppressive atmosphere of Stalinist Russia. Born in Rokitno, where Jews had lived for generations, Alex spent his early childhood surrounded by a loving family, enduring together even under the Soviet occupation of 1939–41. When the Nazis brutally overran Rokitno in June 1941, chaos descended. As a massacre of the town’s Jews was about to begin, Alex’s brother dragged him away from the crowd and into the forest, where they lived by their wits for a year and a half. Alex Levin was barely twelve years old when the war ended in this region and he emerged from hiding into a new world with neither parents nor a community. Relying on the compassion of strangers, Levin found security in unlikely places – in a travelling Russian field hospital; in post-war Moscow; and eventually in a military boarding school. Alex’s story is a personal account of some of the defining moments of the twentieth century and conveys the infinitely resilient spirit of youth, and the remarkable abilities of a boy determined to survive against all odds.
Title: Under the Red & Yellow Stars Author: Alex Levin (1932) Country of origin: Poland Arrival in Canada: 1975
Published: 2009 as part of Series 2 Language of original manuscript: English Introduction: Sara Horowitz and Irving Abella
Alex Levin's book is available here. All books published as part of the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs are available free of charge online in PDF format. Visit the Azrieli Foundation Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program website.
All printed volumes of the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs are also available free of charge to Canadian libraries, schools and Holocaust education programs.
The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs was established to collect, preserve and share the memoirs written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada. The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program is guided by the conviction that each survivor of the Holocaust has a remarkable story to tell and that such accounts play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity. Intended for a broad audience, the series gives readers the opportunity to bear witness to the experiences of Holocaust survivors through the eyes of fellow Canadians. Print editions of the memoirs are distributed free of charge to libraries, schools and Holocaust-education programs across Canada. Online editions, along with information about the program and how to submit a memoir are available at the Azrieli Foundation website.