Itzik, Be Strong! (ABRIDGED EDITION)

As German bombers darkened the skies over Poland in the fall of 1939, many Jews fled before the advancing German armies, seeking to find refuge in the larger cities or in the Russian zone to the east. But the cities were as vulnerable as the towns and villages, while the safety of the Russian zone was but a temporary respite to soon be exploded by the next stage in the war. Itzik, Be Strong, the sixth volume in The Holocaust Diaries collection, is the story of a yeshivah bachur from a small town on the outskirts of Warsaw, whose family was uprooted from its home and driven into exile in the Russian zone. The oppressive Communist regime, however, proved less than hospitable for Jews devoted to the Torah. With Vilna and its yeshivos beckoning to him, Itzik decided to steal across the border into Lithuania. But it was not to be. The time for easy entry into Lithuania had passed. The Russians were now guarding the border closely, and Itzik's ill-fated dash for freedom turned into the start of a long imprisonment and exile.