Into the Forest, by Rebecca Frankel, is the story of the Rabinowitz family, a Jewish family living in Poland at the outbreak of World War II. The story begins in the years prior to the outbreak of the war. The Rabinowitz family is introduced along with totally common daily routine. Nothing there that makes the reader want to turn the page. But then the war breaks out and the efforts that the family makes to survive become astonishing. They eventually flee into the surrounding forest where they survive - most of them, anyway, for two brutal years, barely enduring a couple of the most horrific winters on record, along with concerted efforts by the German military to ferret them out and destroy them. Accounts of German brutality can be disturbing even for those of us who are seasoned veterans of World War II literature. They remain in the forest until the end of the war. Still astounds me the level of cruel behavior humans can exhibit and this is prominent with the Nazi's. The book is a bit dry although the content is extremely important in my opinion. I hate rating these lower because of the content but the readability for the population is important as well and this is a bit slow and textbook like. I rather enjoy a different approach for novels in terms of telling a story. Anyway it is important content to always remember.

This is a great example of excellent Holocaust non-fiction. The author has done meticulous research but managed to share a wealth of historical information with the reader in an engaging, compelling way -- it reads almost like a novel. It also does the important work of sharing stories of Jews who did not survive the Shoah, rather than narrowly focusing on survivors: surviving was a miracle, but statistically rare. Frankel does not shy away from describing horrors faced by Jews in hiding. It is a hard read, but important to keep their memories alive.

Into the Forest

by Rebecca Frankel

So many books have been written about World War II and, more recently, about the Nazi treatment of Polish Jews. Rebecca Frankel adds Into the Forest to the collection. It is nonfiction that in many parts the reader would wish it to be fiction, that the torture, annihilation, and deprivation should not really have happened. It is the story of the Rabinowitz family, of the many Jews who died, of the love that persisted through two years of living on the move in the cold forests, of digging holes in the ground to hide from Nazis. It is the story of survival, of triumph as the lives of some of the people in the book intersect years and thousands of miles later.

This book was emotionally difficult to read, knowing it is nonfiction, and thus was a slow read for me. The author knew first hand some of the people she wrote about. She spent five years researching and interviewing. There is a huge section of copious notes detailing where her information came from for each chapter.

The Prologue ties the tale together and is worth rereading at the conclusion of the book. There are two chapters that set the stage of what life was like in the little Polish village of Zhetel before the invasion of the Russians, followed by the occupation of the Germans. Then the focus lands on the German-created Jewish Ghetto, the Polish Resistance, and the various “selections” in which laborers and those destined for the mass graves were chosen. The “lucky” escaped to a huge forest, but many died there as hunted animals before the liberation came. The Rabinowitz family had their eyes set on a future in Palestine, but they had many more moves in their future and were caught up in the growing prosperity of the 1950’s. Into the Forest is a challenging book worth reading. It shows Jewish life and customs in the midst of both tribulation and good times. The book thankfully ends on positivity as the author stresses the various types of love woven into the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 5/5

Category: History, Nonfiction, Memoir

Publication: September 7, 2021—St. Martin’s Press

Memorable Lines:

The forest, however, would not be exempt from the war’s brutalities or the bare-knuckled survival required to endure it. Nor would it provide ample shield for the Jews or the partisans—Russian and Jewish alike—who had taken shelter here and set up their outposts in its wilds, no matter how dark or deep. The farther they went and the safer they were, the more determined their killers became to root them out.

In some areas, the advertised reward for information on the partisans or hiding Jews was a single cup of sugar. Which was either a reflection of the paltry value of a Jewish life, or the peasants’ depth of desperation.

But Moscow’s successful onslaught had made the retreating Nazis more dangerous and, however unimaginably, even more murderous. Himmler issued an order to those in the path of the fast-moving Soviet troops: destroy all evidence.

This. This is the book to read next time you think you are having a difficult day/month/year. The suffering these people endured and overcame boggles my mind. And it will ever time I read it because this won't be the last.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

INTO THE FOREST: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love – by Rebecca Frankel

How does one put into words, as I sit here with tears streaming down my face, how important it is that you read INTO THE FOREST?

There are no words that I can fashion together that adequately reflect the heartbreaking and at times heartwarming moments of the true story within …

‘In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods―through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids―until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war they trekked across the Alps into Italy where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.’

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for providing me with an eARC of INTO THE FOREST at the request of an honest review.

This is one book that I will return to again and again! And I have recommended this one often to historical fiction readers. There was nothing I didn't love about reading this book, other than the fact that this family had to go through this. But to know how they persevered made every heart breaking word worth the read!

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

Another amazing WWII book. I learned a lot reading it, I always find WWII stories fascinating but so sad. This story will stay with me for quite a while.

I thought this book was well written and informational. This book was on a subject I am interested and was happy to receive an arc. If you are interested in non-fiction this is an excellent read.

The summer of 1942 finds the Rabinowitz family in a horrible place. They must escape the ghetto/nazis and find safety. Little did they know that a forest, an unforgiving forest at that could and would be their refuge. It seems like a fiction story but for this family the forest became their home, their safe place from the Nazis. The Bialowieza forest is just outside of Poland. They find that they are not the only people in there. They must learn to live, eat and sleep in this place. The hardest part is keeping them healthy during the seasons and outbreaks of sickness that plague them. But this is better than any horror they have heard of. They will not leave this place until they are all safe. When they are liberated they move to Italy and then the States. Their family isn’t perfect and their troubles didn’t end in the woods but their courage and bravery are epic. For such a terrible time in history this is just another example of how the human spirit can’t always be broken. I really liked learning about this story. I thought the writer did an excellent job telling it. This was a 5 star read for me and I am so glad Netgalley and Rebecca Frankel for my copy for an honest review. It is not an easy topic but it is an excellent read.

Uplifting and poignant, the Rabinowitz family escape the Warsaw ghetto into the Bialowieza forest to elude their Nazi hunters. Two years of hard living find them encountering the Russian Red Army. Amazing and well written, recommended reading.

Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love is most definitely a must read. It is, also, a very important one that tells of the fight for survival and courage. Five stars.

In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war they trekked across the Alps into Italy where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.

I was interested in the book as soon as I read this description. However, this book wasn’t what I thought it would be. I have read several books written about the Holocaust, both fiction and nonfiction, but this book was kind of a combination of both. It felt like one minute I was reading a historical creative nonfiction novel and then next I was reading a text with continual horrifying facts. I wanted to hear more about the Rabinowitz family and their journey. I thought the book would be about how they survived in nature, but that ended up being only a small part of the story.

At times I almost stopped reading. It’s heartwrenching to read of the atrocities that one human being can inflict on another. Certain parts of the book, actually if felt like a majority of the book, included short accounts of tragedies without any transitions to the stories – It felt like there was no development of the person, just another horrible act.

This book is a reminder of all that we take for granted; and more importantly, how we shouldn’t take for granted all that we do. Most of our hardships and stresses aren’t worth our time and energy when we see what others have had to go through. Reading books about WWII and the Holocaust make me aware that things are just things, life can be fragile, and what truly matters in life is love, loyalty, kindness, and respect for one another.

The Rabinowitz family’s story is truly a testament to courage, hard work, faith, and love. It’s remarkable to think of all they endured and how they came out of such hardship to have fulfilling and happy lives in all their remaining years.

*3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4

*My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy.

I can't really tell you why, but for some reason I love to read about the Holocaust and all aspects of WWII rather in Europe or Asia. All I can figure out is that my papaw was in WWII and at Iwo Jima when the flag was raised. I guess I want to learn what he experienced and went through. As well as, pray and hope that the atrocities Hitler done never happen again.

Frankel wrote a well researched book on the Rabinowitz family during WWII and the years after. Usually, you don't find a Holocaust book that goes into details about the years after. Sometimes it's just a year or two, but not this one. Frankel carried it through their lives.

The Rabinowitz family was a Jewish Polish family when Hitler came to power. They witnessed the beginning of the Ghettos, the selection for 'workers', and the gunning down of Jewish just because they were Jewish. They survived these things, as well as many others. As Frankel states in her book, they lived many lives.

Thanks to Netgalley for the Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This story is going to stick with me for a long time. I can't remember the last time a book had such an effect on me that I would wake up in the night and think about it.

Ever since reading The Forest of Vanishing Stars I wanted to know more about the Jews that hid in the forest and I was very pleased to receive a copy of this.

A young man at a wedding speaks to a young lady and they discover they are both from Poland and she tells him a remarkable story of the mother of her friend who saved a young boy and remarkably he was the young boy. This is a small part of the story but still remarkable. The story is of Miriam and Morris Rabinowitz and their two daughters, Rochel and Tania. When the Nazis force them to live in a ghetto they build a skron, a place for the family to hide if soldiers come to arrest them. Eventually they flee to the forest and live there for two years hiding from the Nazis. This truly depicts the hardship that they endured. At times the weather was well below zero and finding food was hard. They built shelters underground for the little bit of warmth that would provide and camouflage. Diseases were widespread and Miriam contracts typhus. Morris nurses her back to health by shear stubbornness. Even when they are finally able to leave the forest they have more to endure as they hope to make their way to Palestine but end up in the United States. This is nonfiction but really reads more like fiction and I was enthralled from beginning to end.

I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this moving story.

Morris and Miriam Rabinowitz were married in 1933. They had two daughters, Rochelle and Tania. They had servants, an extended family and several close friends. In the summer of 142, the family escaped Nazi ghetto in Zhetel by hiding in the Bialowieza Forest. Nazi soldiers walked over their bunkers. They survive though it was difficult. They were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. During the first ghetto massacre, a young boy, Philip is saved by Miriam’s claiming him to be her son. After the war, they went to Italy, then to the United States. At a wedding, a chance encounter has Philip deciding to find the woman who saved him. He finds her and ends up marrying her daughter Ruth.

After much research, the author wrote this compelling history of Nazi resistance and surviving of the little known Jews of Poland. The book is full of of details about life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The memoir is about Holocaust survival and love.

I’ve read hundreds of Holocaust stories but this one is exceptional. Although it reads like a thriller with its horrors of war, it left me with an uplifting feeling. Be sure to read the Acknowledgments to see the personal connection between the author and the subjects of the book and learn about her five years of research that inspired this moving, true story.

This is one of the most inspirational biographies I’ve read in a long time. The strength and bravery of these wonderful characters in their resistance of the Nazis was awe-inspiring. 5-star read.

Into the Forest, by Rebecca Frankel, is subtitled "A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love." It is an accurate summary of the book, with the important addition that this is a true story of one family's experience evading torture and extinction from Nazi invasion. Their survival is nothing short of miraculous. Most true accounts suffer from the absence of imagination and characterization that infuses fiction. Yet, this story, constructed from interviews and historical events, manages to transcend fiction. I was awed by the fragility of life itself when confronted by evil and inspired by the fortitude and resilience of this one family. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read a digital ARC. I highly recommend it.

Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love is an important book. The last generations of people who experienced these events first hand are a dying generation. The author's meticulous unraveling of this story through multiple interviews is an epic work of one family's struggle in WWII.

The book starts off with one of those coincidental events that Reader's Digest used to specialize in telling, back in the 1970s. A young man is at a wedding in New York and in casual chit chat with another wedding guest, discovers that a woman who did him a great kindness when he was a young man in Poland during the Nazi terror is living within a few miles of his home in America. From this point, we go back in time to find out what happened to the Rabinowitz family. It is amazing to me all the details about the gradual disintegration of life for the Jews in Eastern Poland that the author relays in the story. This is not an overnight change in their lives, but a slow loss of rights until they are prisoners in their own town and everything has been taken from them.

Eventually the family is able to escape to the nearby forests, where they will live throughout the rest of the war, surviving the brutal winters by burrowing into underground hidden huts. Their eventual journey to America is less dramatic than what came before, but no less interesting.

Sometimes books with as much detail as is given here about daily life can be a little boring, but here the author skillfully uses these details to immerse us in 1940 Poland. This is really just an astounding story and I for one am so grateful to the author for telling it.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC. I give it a full five stars!

Into the Forest
Rebecca Frankel

Publication date: 07 Sep 2021

Description:
"In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war they trekked across the Alps into Italy where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States.

During the first ghetto massacre, Miriam Rabinowitz rescued a young boy named Philip by pretending he was her son. Nearly a decade later, a chance encounter at a wedding in Brooklyn would lead Philip to find the woman who saved him. And to discover her daughter Ruth was the love of his life.

From a little-known chapter of Holocaust history, one family’s inspiring true story."

Review:
Suspenseful, uplifting, true story of the Rabinowitz family who survived. Highly recommend.

Little-known chapter of Holocaust history dealing with the Polish Jews who were not sent off to the concentration camps. Escaping from the Germans, they hid out in the Bialowieza Forest for over two years. Life was not easy in the forest (disease, weather, snipers) but with resilience and good fortune the family survived. Members of my own family lived in Lithuania during this time and I wonder what they did to survive.

I liked that the story did not end in 1945. Frankel followed the family out of the forest, back to their hometown and eventually to Italy and the United States. She conducted extensive interviews with the Rabinowitz family and other survivors. Well-written.

I was gifted this advance copy by NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.