The Shadow of Death: The Holocaust in Lithuania [Hardcover]

Harry Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1992

" Holocaust survivor Harry Gordon recalls in brutal detail the anguished years of his youth, a youth spent struggling to survive in a Lithuanian concentration camp. A memoir about hope and resilience, The Shadow of Death describes the invasion of Kovno by the Red Army and the impact of Soviet occupation from the perspective of the ghetto's weakest and poorest class. It also serves as a reminder that the Germans were not alone responsible for the persecution and extermination of Jews.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Russia annexed Lithuania in 1940, Jews, if not Christian Lithuanians, greeted the Red Army with flowers, recalls Gordon. But the following year, when Germany declared war against Russia, the then-16-year-old author's security as member of a large, close-knit family of affluent Kovno Jews would be shattered. In a Holocaust memoir made unique by its rare depiction of Nazi-occupied Lithuania and by its condemnation of the local Jewish council, Gordon bears witness to the brutality of Lithuanians and conqueror alike as he reconstructs his corner of hell from the German invasion to his 1944 rescue as a Dachau escapee, his two-year hospitalization and emigration to the U.S. in 1949. Although crudely written--"To Lithuanians Jewish blood tasted better than the best wine"; the Jewish police lived "like parasites on someone else's blood"--the book makes a tremendous impact as we read of starvation, grueling work parties, betrayals, executions, Auschwitz and Dachau, the deaths of virtually all members of Gordon's family. After arriving in the U.S. with his Polish wife (met in a displaced persons' camp), the author's life, unfortunately, did not markedly right itself: he quickly divorced, then, with little else available to him, became a "Yiddish peddler" in Wisconsin.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Gordon's memoir of surviving the Holocaust in Lithuania is told from the perspective of a youth who grew up in a large, supportive family circle but learned how to endure through his own wit and by confronting the worst of human nature. The Red Army's initial occupation of Kovno was followed by the Nazi invasion and the deportation of the region's Jews to Slobodka ghetto, where massacres and transport to German concentration camps eventually followed. Few survived, but Gordon preserves the record for the many in detailing major events; the ambivalent behavior of Lithuanians toward Jews; and the community organization, work, and routine of ghetto life. When Gordon conveys that he preferred death to life without his family and hoped for survival through patient endurance, the reader better understands the mind of the Holocaust victim. A simple and direct account for Holocaust collections and larger libraries of Eastern European history. See also Art Spiegelman's Maus, a Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began , reviewed in this issue, p. 160.
- Rena Fowler, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 174 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813117674
• ISBN-13: 978-0813117676
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,765,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Horrors of daily life during WWII, October 13, 2010

By 

V. Srinivasa Raghavan (Chennai, India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shadow of Death: The Holocaust in Lithuania (Paperback)

I just finished reading this book. The book is written in a simple style, composed of numerous short chapters. The author is indeed lucky to have survived the holocaust. The author talks about his life with his extended family in Kovno, the eventual destruction of all but 3 of the family, the occupation under Russians and then the Germans, his constant hunger due to rationing and overworking, behaviour of fellow Lithuanians and Jews, and his subsequent emigration to USA. The narration is free of self-pity and emotions, over-generalizing to what happened with Jews elsewhere in Europe, and the author also avoids philosophizing too much - which is also natural as he was a teenager during the period. Especially for non-Europeans, it is so frightening to imagine the life of a Jewish person during those times, when the mere direction of the finger of a German commandant could land you among the living versus the soon-to-be-exterminated. The author also paints a neutral and impersonal picture of Lithuanians, Russians, Germans and fellow Jews. There were rapacious and exploitative Jewish police, and there were occasional acts of kindness from the Lithuanians and Germans.

A very good read, especially coming from this corner of Europe

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read, February 4, 2007

By 

cccp (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Shadow of Death: The Holocaust in Lithuania (Paperback)

Although this book is not of high quality literary-wise, it is very interesting. As a reader you get a realistic glimpse of how life in the Lithuanan Jewish gettho's was during WWII. I was shocked to find out that not only Germans, but Lithuanians and Poles too were involved in mass-killings of innocent people. 'The shadow of death' is a very suitbale titel, because that is exactly how the jewish people must have felt: living in the shadow of death.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading!!!!, March 6, 2002

By 

Nancy Washington (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shadow of Death: The Holocaust in Lithuania (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down and didn't want it to end. Harry could easily write a sequel to this book of how he transitioned into American life. This book is very easy reading and insightful of the atrocities that happened in Lithuania. Harry I admire you.