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In the Sewers of Lvov: A Heroic Story of Survival from the Holocaust
In German-occupied Poland, a group of resourceful Jews found the perfect place to hide from the Nazis, and avoid the mass executions in May of 1943. Enduring hunger, rats, thirst, dysentery, and incredible psychological pressure, they hid for nearly two years in the sewer system beneath the city of Lvov. Their courage, as detailed in this inspiring book, is a testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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January 20, 2013
Before the war the small town of Gdow, the nearest large community to my grandfather's farm, had a sizeable number of Jews living in it. My father used to talk about them; they ran some of the shops and inns, they traded with his parents, he went to school with them (they gave him their chicken sandwiches and he gave them his pork kielbasa ones). One of these Jews, a trader called Samuel, often came round to the farm and would chat with my grandparents. He would make complimentary comments about my grandmother's Bigos, hinting at being given a bowl. She would joke with him and warn him that the Rabbi would have something to say if he knew he was eating pork... and he would joke back. When the Germans came Samuel came to see my grandfather and asked him to help him. My grandfather said, "I can hide you for three days but no longer, if the Germans find out then they'll not only kill me but my wife and children as well." Samuel replied that he would not impose himself on his good friends but would find another way of surviving.
He didn't. He and all the Jews of Gdow; shopkeepers, innkeepers, tradesmen, schoolfriends, ended up in Belzec and were turned into ashes, bones and dust.
This book is about something that is almost taken for granted throughout. It is not really about the courage it took to survive in the sewers of Lvov because survival is not about courage, more about determination to live despite all the hazards. This book is about the courage of one man, Leopold Socha. To put your life in danger for others is a brave choice, but to put the lives of those you love at risk... that takes a kind of courage few people actually exhibit - yet so many in Poland did in that nightmare time. Socha may not have started with saintly aspirations but there can be no doubt that saint he became.
I was inspired to read "In the Sewers of Lvov" after watching Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness" (it's the original book that the film is based on - "The Girl in the Green Sweater" is a more recent 'compilation' of reminiscences written partly by the small girl who survived). It's a very easy read and gives us a reasonable picture of what life was like for the individuals who hid in the sewers as well as in the ghetto and the concentration camp, Janowska, nearby. It's not intellectually demanding since, I believe, it was written for the general audience. I was quite surprised at how much the film reflects the book yet, whilst there is little new in the book (having seen the film), I still enjoyed it and still found it fascinating.
It's surprising how little of the dirt and smell, even danger, comes across. The small group of Jews helped by Socha had obviously grown so used to the horrible circumstances in which they found themselves. It's only really towards the end, when outsiders become involved, that that one becomes aware of the dirt and smell and conditions they had to endure. Most of the story, based on the written reminiscences of the leader of the group, Ignacy Chiger, and interviews with other survivors, deals with their day-to-day survival, the relationships within the group, the arguments. Whilst there are deaths they are largely almost incidental... this story is about life... and the courage of that one special man who found safe havens and brought them food, Socha.
The moment that really stands out for me is that one when the dirty, hunched, almost blind group finally come to the surface. People stand around amazed, stunned. The little boy is frightened and wants to go back down. Socha stands there proudly. "This is my work," he says, "These are my Jews." How many of us can ever hope to have that courage and that pride?
And the final chapter, the one dealing with the aftermath is new stuff to those who have seen the film, apart, that is, from that final tragedy and those disgraceful words...
He didn't. He and all the Jews of Gdow; shopkeepers, innkeepers, tradesmen, schoolfriends, ended up in Belzec and were turned into ashes, bones and dust.
This book is about something that is almost taken for granted throughout. It is not really about the courage it took to survive in the sewers of Lvov because survival is not about courage, more about determination to live despite all the hazards. This book is about the courage of one man, Leopold Socha. To put your life in danger for others is a brave choice, but to put the lives of those you love at risk... that takes a kind of courage few people actually exhibit - yet so many in Poland did in that nightmare time. Socha may not have started with saintly aspirations but there can be no doubt that saint he became.
I was inspired to read "In the Sewers of Lvov" after watching Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness" (it's the original book that the film is based on - "The Girl in the Green Sweater" is a more recent 'compilation' of reminiscences written partly by the small girl who survived). It's a very easy read and gives us a reasonable picture of what life was like for the individuals who hid in the sewers as well as in the ghetto and the concentration camp, Janowska, nearby. It's not intellectually demanding since, I believe, it was written for the general audience. I was quite surprised at how much the film reflects the book yet, whilst there is little new in the book (having seen the film), I still enjoyed it and still found it fascinating.
It's surprising how little of the dirt and smell, even danger, comes across. The small group of Jews helped by Socha had obviously grown so used to the horrible circumstances in which they found themselves. It's only really towards the end, when outsiders become involved, that that one becomes aware of the dirt and smell and conditions they had to endure. Most of the story, based on the written reminiscences of the leader of the group, Ignacy Chiger, and interviews with other survivors, deals with their day-to-day survival, the relationships within the group, the arguments. Whilst there are deaths they are largely almost incidental... this story is about life... and the courage of that one special man who found safe havens and brought them food, Socha.
The moment that really stands out for me is that one when the dirty, hunched, almost blind group finally come to the surface. People stand around amazed, stunned. The little boy is frightened and wants to go back down. Socha stands there proudly. "This is my work," he says, "These are my Jews." How many of us can ever hope to have that courage and that pride?
And the final chapter, the one dealing with the aftermath is new stuff to those who have seen the film, apart, that is, from that final tragedy and those disgraceful words...
August 16, 2009
When the Nazis began to liquidate the ghetto in Lvov, a handful of Jews survived by escaping into the sewers under the city. For fourteen months, until the Red Army liberated them, they lived in appalling conditions, beset by rats and knee-deep in muck and sewage and eating moldy bread and rotten potatoes and unable to stand upright; they survived not only because of their will to live but because of a Polish sewer-worker and former criminal named Socha—the real hero of this story—who shifted them about the sewers to elude capture and also supplied them with food and other necessities. Had the Nazis known about this (a not unlikely event, since many Poles hated the Jews) they would have summarily executed not only Socha but his entire family. What were Socha’s motives? Always mixed: he saved “my Jews,” as he called them, partly for the money they paid him (though it was not much), partly out of compassion, partly out of pride that he was doing something significant, and partly to atone (he was a devout Catholic) for his prior sins as a criminal. After their money ran out he quashed a plot by his fellow sewer-workers to poison the Jews, and continued to bring them food and news of the outside world. After the war, the survivors stayed in touch with each other and with Socha; out of gratitude they helped him buy a small neighborhood bar. Unfortunately, he did not live long: he was crushed under a runaway truck while pushing his daughter out of its path.
This book adds to the many descriptions of Nazi atrocities during the “Final Solution,” but more, it shows the incredible will to live manifested by some (but by no means all) of the ghetto Jews, and amazing heroism and ingenuity of the surviving Jews and of the strange Pole who acted from motives that will never be fully understood.
[Ghetto commander SS Obersturmführer Grzymek, a German from the Sudetenland:] patrolled the streets himself, entering the buildings to inspect each home while the inhabitants were at work. A smear of grease on a pane of glass, scraps of food, or a heap of ashes found in the stove was cause for retribution. For a tuft of stubble left unshaved Grzymek would shoot you himself; for an untidy room he would deport all the inhabitants; for the first hint of disease he would execute everyone in the building and raze the pitiful shell. His pathological behavior sent the population into frenzied devotions of washing, sweeping, and polishing whatever they were forced to call home.
Grzymek patrolled with a squad of soldiers spreading terror up and down the streets with impressive thoroughness. They moved quietly down corridors in search of children who had escaped the earlier Aktion. If they sighted a child through a window or hidden in some cavity, the marksmen would silently aim at their target and shoot. As if clearing rabbits from a country estate, Grzymek moved through his domain.
[Obersturmführer:] Wilhaus [of the Janowska concentration camp:] was something of a sportsman. He rode the grounds of his establishment on horseback with a favorite German shepherd at his heels. It was not uncommon for him to be seen on the front porch of his house with a rifle, shooting at people on the parade ground as though they were ducks in a shooting gallery.
[In the Janowska concentration camp:] executions were stunningly gruesome. Men were hanged by the legs, beaten until dead, and then disemboweled. Everywhere was a kind of mad hatred, a violence that beggared the imagination. As the temperature regularly dropped well below freezing during winter, people were often simply left outside to freeze, or placed in large barrels of water. In the morning they would appear like elongated balls of snow on the ground, or their cadavers were chipped out of frozen barrels of ice. Untersturmführer Fritz Gebauer, Wilhaus’s subordinate, was known to simply take hold of a man and strangle him with his own hands.
Margulies recalled someone voicing their anxiety: “To be at the mercy of those goyim, who might all become heroes simply by bringing the Germans on an expedition through the sewers.” Fear spread swiftly. Most of them had not the faintest idea who Socha was. The only logical reason why he should return was the lure of money. Nazi law was clear: whoever handed over Jews in hiding was rewarded with whatever wealth was captured with them. Either way, there seemed no reasonable way to sustain hope. Only a few clung to their conviction that Socha could be trusted, when logic dictated otherwise.
The everyday hardships they had to contend with both increased the stresses among them and at the same time focused their minds on survival. The sheer filth of their environment is hard to recapture. The walls of the cavern were constantly wet and crawled with a weird strain of albino insects. They were regularly invaded by small squadrons of rats, ferocious in their quest for food. These extraordinarily robust creatures scurried everywhere. If anyone tried to sleep, he or she was inevitably awakened by high-pitched squeaks and the clatter of cold feet across hands or face. The rats appeared whenever food arrived and fearlessly launched themselves at any unguarded scrap. It finally befell one of the group to stand guard with a pile of stones to throw at the beasts while others slept or tried to eat.
Socha’s relationship with the group was the cornerstone pf the entire ordeal. He occasionally explained his feelings about the work he was doing, and in doing so revealed a little of his personality. He used to describe in a very moving way the story of his seeing Paulina for the first time: “When I squeezed through the shaft, into the little cellar, you were sitting there with Krysia and Pawel under each arm. Like a mother kite and her chicks.” He nicknamed Paulina “Kania,” which means kite. “It was at that moment I decided to save you.” He used grand, demonstrative language that aroused their curiosity. “I believe this is my mission. That I have been asked to do this, to atone….”
As Socha talked further he began reeling off more of his exploits, causing his audience more and more distress. He admitted to having been in prison three times—but only because someone had betrayed him. He also claimed he had never betrayed anyone. “I would rather take the blame than implicate others.” It probably explained why he was so familiar with the inside of Lonski prison.
“I dreamed of a rabbi last night,” Berestycki told them. “An old Hasidic rabbi I knew in Lodz. He had a small shtiebul [a room in a house used for prayer…:] where my father and I used to go for prayer. He was very elderly, and so I used to visit him and his wife each day, and bathe his wife’s feet. Because I took such good care of them, the rabbi told me one day, ‘Jacob, you are blessed. In the hard times to come, you, your children, and your children’s children will escape the terror.’
“Then, one day in 1938, he made a speech at the shtiebul during the High Holidays. It was about a year before the war broke out. The rabbi said, ‘So, you are dressed up for the High Holidays. But if you knew what was coming, you would dress for a shivah [mourning:], fast, and pray for deliverance.’
“The old rabbi died that year—and, of course, he had been right. Well, I dreamed of him last night, and in the dream he came to deliver a message. In my dream he said to me, ‘I have come to tell you that I have fulfilled my promise. You remember my blessing. You should know that you will be free on a particular day.’ He told me a day in the Hebrew calendar. I told him that I had lost track of the Hebrew calendar, but I knew what day it was in the secular calendar. So he told me the date in the secular calendar.” [The date in Berestycki’s dream was off by only five days.:]
Pawel, when finally he could bear to look in the light, saw this crazy red-colored world filled with space, air, and faces. He threw himself into his mother’s arms and buried himself in her warmth. “I want to go back. I want to go back, I’m afraid,” he cried.
In tears and choking anguish, he searched for the familiar. Above their heads was an oddly shaped polygon of bright red sky, and everywhere staring faces, stunned, disbelieving, silently shaking their heads. And there, in the midst of all the chaos, Socha stood proudly, staring his fellow countrymen in the eye.
“This is my work. All my work. These are my Jews.”
This book adds to the many descriptions of Nazi atrocities during the “Final Solution,” but more, it shows the incredible will to live manifested by some (but by no means all) of the ghetto Jews, and amazing heroism and ingenuity of the surviving Jews and of the strange Pole who acted from motives that will never be fully understood.
[Ghetto commander SS Obersturmführer Grzymek, a German from the Sudetenland:] patrolled the streets himself, entering the buildings to inspect each home while the inhabitants were at work. A smear of grease on a pane of glass, scraps of food, or a heap of ashes found in the stove was cause for retribution. For a tuft of stubble left unshaved Grzymek would shoot you himself; for an untidy room he would deport all the inhabitants; for the first hint of disease he would execute everyone in the building and raze the pitiful shell. His pathological behavior sent the population into frenzied devotions of washing, sweeping, and polishing whatever they were forced to call home.
Grzymek patrolled with a squad of soldiers spreading terror up and down the streets with impressive thoroughness. They moved quietly down corridors in search of children who had escaped the earlier Aktion. If they sighted a child through a window or hidden in some cavity, the marksmen would silently aim at their target and shoot. As if clearing rabbits from a country estate, Grzymek moved through his domain.
[Obersturmführer:] Wilhaus [of the Janowska concentration camp:] was something of a sportsman. He rode the grounds of his establishment on horseback with a favorite German shepherd at his heels. It was not uncommon for him to be seen on the front porch of his house with a rifle, shooting at people on the parade ground as though they were ducks in a shooting gallery.
[In the Janowska concentration camp:] executions were stunningly gruesome. Men were hanged by the legs, beaten until dead, and then disemboweled. Everywhere was a kind of mad hatred, a violence that beggared the imagination. As the temperature regularly dropped well below freezing during winter, people were often simply left outside to freeze, or placed in large barrels of water. In the morning they would appear like elongated balls of snow on the ground, or their cadavers were chipped out of frozen barrels of ice. Untersturmführer Fritz Gebauer, Wilhaus’s subordinate, was known to simply take hold of a man and strangle him with his own hands.
Margulies recalled someone voicing their anxiety: “To be at the mercy of those goyim, who might all become heroes simply by bringing the Germans on an expedition through the sewers.” Fear spread swiftly. Most of them had not the faintest idea who Socha was. The only logical reason why he should return was the lure of money. Nazi law was clear: whoever handed over Jews in hiding was rewarded with whatever wealth was captured with them. Either way, there seemed no reasonable way to sustain hope. Only a few clung to their conviction that Socha could be trusted, when logic dictated otherwise.
The everyday hardships they had to contend with both increased the stresses among them and at the same time focused their minds on survival. The sheer filth of their environment is hard to recapture. The walls of the cavern were constantly wet and crawled with a weird strain of albino insects. They were regularly invaded by small squadrons of rats, ferocious in their quest for food. These extraordinarily robust creatures scurried everywhere. If anyone tried to sleep, he or she was inevitably awakened by high-pitched squeaks and the clatter of cold feet across hands or face. The rats appeared whenever food arrived and fearlessly launched themselves at any unguarded scrap. It finally befell one of the group to stand guard with a pile of stones to throw at the beasts while others slept or tried to eat.
Socha’s relationship with the group was the cornerstone pf the entire ordeal. He occasionally explained his feelings about the work he was doing, and in doing so revealed a little of his personality. He used to describe in a very moving way the story of his seeing Paulina for the first time: “When I squeezed through the shaft, into the little cellar, you were sitting there with Krysia and Pawel under each arm. Like a mother kite and her chicks.” He nicknamed Paulina “Kania,” which means kite. “It was at that moment I decided to save you.” He used grand, demonstrative language that aroused their curiosity. “I believe this is my mission. That I have been asked to do this, to atone….”
As Socha talked further he began reeling off more of his exploits, causing his audience more and more distress. He admitted to having been in prison three times—but only because someone had betrayed him. He also claimed he had never betrayed anyone. “I would rather take the blame than implicate others.” It probably explained why he was so familiar with the inside of Lonski prison.
“I dreamed of a rabbi last night,” Berestycki told them. “An old Hasidic rabbi I knew in Lodz. He had a small shtiebul [a room in a house used for prayer…:] where my father and I used to go for prayer. He was very elderly, and so I used to visit him and his wife each day, and bathe his wife’s feet. Because I took such good care of them, the rabbi told me one day, ‘Jacob, you are blessed. In the hard times to come, you, your children, and your children’s children will escape the terror.’
“Then, one day in 1938, he made a speech at the shtiebul during the High Holidays. It was about a year before the war broke out. The rabbi said, ‘So, you are dressed up for the High Holidays. But if you knew what was coming, you would dress for a shivah [mourning:], fast, and pray for deliverance.’
“The old rabbi died that year—and, of course, he had been right. Well, I dreamed of him last night, and in the dream he came to deliver a message. In my dream he said to me, ‘I have come to tell you that I have fulfilled my promise. You remember my blessing. You should know that you will be free on a particular day.’ He told me a day in the Hebrew calendar. I told him that I had lost track of the Hebrew calendar, but I knew what day it was in the secular calendar. So he told me the date in the secular calendar.” [The date in Berestycki’s dream was off by only five days.:]
Pawel, when finally he could bear to look in the light, saw this crazy red-colored world filled with space, air, and faces. He threw himself into his mother’s arms and buried himself in her warmth. “I want to go back. I want to go back, I’m afraid,” he cried.
In tears and choking anguish, he searched for the familiar. Above their heads was an oddly shaped polygon of bright red sky, and everywhere staring faces, stunned, disbelieving, silently shaking their heads. And there, in the midst of all the chaos, Socha stood proudly, staring his fellow countrymen in the eye.
“This is my work. All my work. These are my Jews.”
March 22, 2019
Book takes place in Lvov, western Ukraine during WW2. Nazis invade and place the Jewish population in a working camp. All of a sudden their is mass executions and several hundred people survive in the sewers. This book starts off strong for me but gets kind of boring. I don’t know if it’s the writing style or what! This won’t be a memorable book for me to recommend to anyone.
September 28, 2022
I found out about this book by reading The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff. This is the historical account of the setting Jenoff chose for her historical fiction novel, and as I knew it would, gives me a much more accurate picture of the realities they endured than Jenoff's novel did. What these people went through to survive, spelled out in great detail in this book, is astonishing. Now I will move on to The Girl in the Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger, one of the survivors who was a little girl at the time, and from what I can tell, wrote her book from a child's-eye view of her time in the sewers.
March 17, 2012
This is the true story of a group of Jews that hid in the sewers beneath Lvov, a Polish city, for 14 months at the end of WW 2. It is amazing the lengths people will go to to survive. This is written from personal accounts and the story is mind boggling. Very hard to put myself in their shoes. I had heard of this story but didn't know any of the details till I read the book. Makes you wonder what each and everyone of us is capable of.
January 27, 2009
It's unbelievable what these people went through and survived. Socha is a true hero.
Read
September 27, 2010Very well written and inspirational book.
April 3, 2012
Survival in the sewers of Lvov, Poland during the Nazi invasion. The survivors lived below ground for 14 months, before emerging.
May 4, 2012
this is an amazing story and one I hadn't heard about before.
August 16, 2022
This was definitely another eyeopener into what the Jews had to endure because of the hate and destruction. I could not imagine living one day in the sewers least of all almost 2 years. What these people went through was horrific enough, but to survive for as long as they did in the sewers is unimaginable. Talk about the will to live and one day be liberated. Thank God for people like Socha and his friends who not only risked their lives, but the lives of everyone in their families to help those in the sewer. Can you for one minute see yourself emerge from the sewers after almost 2 years and b so frightened of the outside world you cry to go back into the sewers. How horrible that must feel especially for such a young child. No matter how many books I read written about the Holocaust I will never, ever understand how humans can do what these monsters did to other humans.
May 3, 2008
I read a lot of rescuer lit, and this one is extraordinarily compelling.
May 11, 2018
Swoją opowieść o lwowskich kanałach, gdzie schronienie znalazło kilkanaścioro Żydów, spośród których przeżyło, dzięki pomocy trzech polskich kanalarzy, dziesięcioro, oparł Robert Marshall na rękopisie pamiętnika Ignacego Chigera, a także na rozmowach z żoną Chigera, Pauliną, ich córką, Krystyną, Klarą i Mundkiem „Korsarzem” Marguliesami oraz krewnymi pozostałych ocalałych którzy, kiedy pisał W kanałach Lwowa, już nie żyli. Książka Marshalla była podstawą scenariusza filmu Agnieszki Holland W ciemności, a rozmowy z autorem przyczyniły się zapewne do przelania na papier swoich wspomnień przez Krystynę, czyli dziewczynkę w zielonym sweterku.
Opowieść Marshalla, inaczej niż pamiętnik Chigera, ogranicza się w zasadzie do czternastu miesięcy w kanałach. Okupacja sowiecka, lwowskie getto i obóz janowski występują jedynie we wspomnieniach. Jeden wstrząsający epizod, mianowicie wyjście Marguliesa z kanałów, aby w obozie janowskim, tuż przed jego ostateczną likwidacją, spotkać się z siostrą Klary, Manyą, opisany jest tylko u Marshalla. W porównaniu z Chigerem, dla którego centrum świata była cały czas jego rodzina, Marshall znacznie więcej miejsca poświęca pozostałym uczestnikom kanałowej gehenny. Choć jego opowieść także ma walor dokumentu, w sposobie relacjonowania przeżyć uwięzionych pod ziemią czuć rękę zawodowca. Brytyjski dziennikarz i producent telewizyjny doskonale wie, jak operować słowem, budować nastrój i przedstawiać grozę bez wdawania się w niestosowne dywagacje i komentarze. Potrafi przy tym przekazać odpowiednią dozę informacji o mechanizmie Zagłady na terenach okupowanych, istotną szczególnie dla czytelników z państw, którym los oszczędził takich przeżyć. Świetny lektor audiobooka, Derek Perkins, który towarzyszył mi przy lekturze książki, doskonale wyczuwa intencje autora.
Niecałe dwa lata po wyjściu z kanałów ocalali Żydzi spotkali się na smutnej uroczystości pogrzebowej swojego wybawcy, Leopolda Sochy, zabitego przez radziecką ciężarówkę. Z tłumu żałobników dobiegł ich głos: „This is God’s retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews.” „To kara boska za ukrywanie Żydów” - tak to brzmiało po polsku, o czym z rozgoryczeniem wspomina dziewczynka w zielonym sweterku, Kristine Chiger-Keren, w rozmowie z tłumaczką jej książki Beatą Dżon.
Opowieść Marshalla, inaczej niż pamiętnik Chigera, ogranicza się w zasadzie do czternastu miesięcy w kanałach. Okupacja sowiecka, lwowskie getto i obóz janowski występują jedynie we wspomnieniach. Jeden wstrząsający epizod, mianowicie wyjście Marguliesa z kanałów, aby w obozie janowskim, tuż przed jego ostateczną likwidacją, spotkać się z siostrą Klary, Manyą, opisany jest tylko u Marshalla. W porównaniu z Chigerem, dla którego centrum świata była cały czas jego rodzina, Marshall znacznie więcej miejsca poświęca pozostałym uczestnikom kanałowej gehenny. Choć jego opowieść także ma walor dokumentu, w sposobie relacjonowania przeżyć uwięzionych pod ziemią czuć rękę zawodowca. Brytyjski dziennikarz i producent telewizyjny doskonale wie, jak operować słowem, budować nastrój i przedstawiać grozę bez wdawania się w niestosowne dywagacje i komentarze. Potrafi przy tym przekazać odpowiednią dozę informacji o mechanizmie Zagłady na terenach okupowanych, istotną szczególnie dla czytelników z państw, którym los oszczędził takich przeżyć. Świetny lektor audiobooka, Derek Perkins, który towarzyszył mi przy lekturze książki, doskonale wyczuwa intencje autora.
Niecałe dwa lata po wyjściu z kanałów ocalali Żydzi spotkali się na smutnej uroczystości pogrzebowej swojego wybawcy, Leopolda Sochy, zabitego przez radziecką ciężarówkę. Z tłumu żałobników dobiegł ich głos: „This is God’s retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews.” „To kara boska za ukrywanie Żydów” - tak to brzmiało po polsku, o czym z rozgoryczeniem wspomina dziewczynka w zielonym sweterku, Kristine Chiger-Keren, w rozmowie z tłumaczką jej książki Beatą Dżon.
October 28, 2021
Survival and the persistence of one man looking for redemption.
This book was listed in the back matter of "The girl with a blue star"
I panned the book, while I know survival was important, I questioned the placibity of the ble star book
There was a pregnant women in Sewers of Lvov, amazing what the body will do to care for its fetus,
(yet, it was tragic)
A sewer worker named Socha was remarkable.
The last line of the book is the most haunting
Socha died saving his daughter from a runaway truck
His sewer survivors attended the funeral
Chiger thought he stood with Catholics and themselves united in grief,
but they heard from the back of the room "This is God's retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews."
This book was listed in the back matter of "The girl with a blue star"
I panned the book, while I know survival was important, I questioned the placibity of the ble star book
There was a pregnant women in Sewers of Lvov, amazing what the body will do to care for its fetus,
(yet, it was tragic)
A sewer worker named Socha was remarkable.
The last line of the book is the most haunting
Socha died saving his daughter from a runaway truck
His sewer survivors attended the funeral
Chiger thought he stood with Catholics and themselves united in grief,
but they heard from the back of the room "This is God's retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2021
I was introduced to this book after reading Pam Jenoff's book The Woman With The Blue Star. Her book was inspired by In The Sewers Of Lvov by Robert Marshall. An incredible true account about the Jewish people that made the sewers of Lvov their refuge from the Germans during the days of WW11. A difficult but necessary book to read. We must not forget the atrocities placed upon the Jewish people and the genocide they were subjected to. The courage of these people and those who helped them was astounding. A hard book to read but a hard book to put down.
March 28, 2022
Tells the stories of some Jewish people who spent 18 months in the sewer to avoid the Germans during World War 2. It also tells about the Polish sewer workers who helped them. It is told by several people's accounts of what happened. While some things they agree on some others they do not. It also does go to show that money does help, since some of these were rich before the war they still had plenty of money to use while they were down there, since they need to pay for the people to help and get them supplies. If they were poor I think it would have been a totally different story.
December 20, 2022
This is the 9th Holocaust memoir that I have read in 2022.
Surviving in the sewers with the help of 3 Polish sewer workers but mainly through the help of Socha who felt it was his mission from God to keep these 10 Jews alive.
After 14 months, they emerged from the sewers in July 1944. Their survival was amazing.
The last line of the book really got me. In May 1946, Socha died when his bicycle was run over by an out of control Russian army truck. They reunited at his funeral and someone was overheard saying "This is God's retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews."
Surviving in the sewers with the help of 3 Polish sewer workers but mainly through the help of Socha who felt it was his mission from God to keep these 10 Jews alive.
After 14 months, they emerged from the sewers in July 1944. Their survival was amazing.
The last line of the book really got me. In May 1946, Socha died when his bicycle was run over by an out of control Russian army truck. They reunited at his funeral and someone was overheard saying "This is God's retribution. This is what comes of helping the Jews."
September 29, 2024
What a story of courage and survival. I previously read a historical fiction story regarding the ten survivors of living in the city sewers for fourteen months. What an inspiration these people are for all of us. The will to survive is strong in all of us. Please read so you can be inspired to new heights of living.
May 15, 2025
The most harrowing book I have ever read. The fact that this is not a fictionalization, but is rather built from multiple personal accounts, makes it even worse. It is almost impossible to comprehend what these people went through, or to come to terms with the fact that people are willing to commit such an unthinkable evil. I need a break after this one.
March 13, 2017
Excellent book about survival
This was an amazing book about survival in WWII. This is not your average survivor's account of WWII. If you are looking for a WWII story that is not about Auschwitz then this is the book for you.
This was an amazing book about survival in WWII. This is not your average survivor's account of WWII. If you are looking for a WWII story that is not about Auschwitz then this is the book for you.
September 11, 2022
very interesting book , unfathomable living conditions
in Poland during the time of the Nazi invasion
The group of people living in horrific circumstances were truly brave and resourceful
in Poland during the time of the Nazi invasion
The group of people living in horrific circumstances were truly brave and resourceful
May 26, 2021
Well-written account of a group of Jewish people that survived the Holocaust by living in the sewer system.
The final line of this book will haunt me.
The final line of this book will haunt me.
August 2, 2021
Amazing story from the Holocaust. Very readable nonfiction based on memories of people who survived by hiding in the sewers. Unbelievable.
August 30, 2021
Horrific accounting of the Jews who hid in the sewers of Lvov, Poland to escape death by the Germans.
September 19, 2021
I have to admit that this wasn't as good as I anticipated, so I skimmed it. I read it based on hearing about it from another book I read that was based on this one.
September 28, 2021
Certainly interesting but I do not think I will ever understand how people could live in a sewer; how horrible.
March 30, 2022
Sobering account of incredibly courageous people.
March 27, 2023
Absolutely a must read.
January 9, 2024
Incredible
Read
January 6, 2025Pretty sure I’ve already read this one many years and hadn’t added it to Goodreads. So I’m not counting it towards my 2025 Goodreads Challenge!
February 26, 2025
5 stars for those who endured this and for the angels on earth who helped them through it! But nothing special about the writing style.
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