conscript labor

The author shares the story of his father's struggle to stay alive during the Holocaust, telling of how Joseph Skakun, a yeshiva student in Poland in 1941, thwarted the Nazis by assuming a series of false identities, first as a Christian, then as a Muslim, and finally as a recruit of the Waffen SS.

Ann Kirschner draws on family letters to recount the experiences her mother had during the Holocaust and the lasting impact those experiences had on her mother's life.

The author tells of the three years she endured as a slave laborer of the Nazis during World War II.

The author relates her experiences from 1941-1953 as she struggles to survive as a Russian teenager caught up in all the horrors of World War II and its aftermath.