In the Shadow of Death

All survivors are privileged witnesses. Their testimony is indispensable and indisputable. It has a unique weight, both moral and historical. This is what one feels when reading Joseph Foxman's brief yet poignant memoir. The fear and trembling in the ghettos in occupied Lithuania, the brutality of work brigades, the determination to save his newborn son Abraham - given to a Catholic woman who baptized him - the thousand ways of avoiding death. He said he recited the Gomel prayer - the traditional Jewish blessing of thanks to God by one who has survived a dangerous experience - ten times. Correction: ten times a day, an hour. Will the reader tomorrow understand what it meant for Jewish parents to be separated from their child?