Lilly's Album: Based on True Story

by Uri Jerzy Nachimson

An unforgettable story of love, loss, and survival, based on true events.

On a freezing winter day in 1943, the last transport leaves the ghetto of a small town in southern Poland. Packed into sealed wagons without food or water, the remaining Jews are sent toward an unknown fate. Among them is Lilly.

What begins as a journey becomes a descent into terror, where fear, hope, and human dignity collide in the face of unimaginable cruelty.

Through the eyes of a young girl, Lilly’s Album reveals not only the horrors of history, but the fragile strength of the human spirit—and the power of memory to survive even the darkest moments.

This is the first book in the Identity Trilogy.

ebook

Published February 23, 2018

About the author

Uri Jerzy Nachimson is the author of numerous historical novels inspired by true events, exploring love, identity, and the human cost of history.

Two of his works, The Polish Patriot and Lilly’s Album, are included in the collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of its educational resources. He comes from a distinguished literary lineage that includes A.S. Friedberg and Isabella Grinevskaya, continuing a tradition of storytelling rooted in cultural memory.

Born in Szczecin, Poland, in 1947, he emigrated to Israel as a child. In 1966, he was drafted into the Israeli army and served as a war photographer during the Six-Day War, documenting history as it unfolded. His photographs were later exhibited within IDF units.

A lifelong traveler and observer, Nachimson has witnessed pivotal moments firsthand, from the streets of Prague during the Soviet invasion to journeys across Egypt. These experiences later shaped works such as Seeds of Love and his trilogy Lilly’s Album, The Polish Patriot, and Identity.

Since 2007, he has lived in Tuscany, Italy, where he devotes his time to writing.

Reviews

[Giorgio Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and well-written book has also been translated into other languages. The story leaves you with big question marks. What did the Jews do to deserve this terrible massacre? They did not fight the Nazis nor the Poles or the Russians. The story is difficult and there are no answers, just abysmal hatred.

[Winnie De · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful book, I cried so much because of knowing that Lilly really existed, and died so young in terrible death. Very interesting to read about jewish life before the war and the behave of their polish neighbours towards them.

[Giulia Gramsci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the sequel to The Polish Patriot, both books are in the Holocaust Museum in Washington. A must-have book, gentle, interesting, emotional and tear-jerking. Lily's life from her birth to her death at the age of twenty-seven. It is not a book of horrors, but sensitive and interesting.

[Sandrine Faulkner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story that makes you thinking. What kind of humans could do all those atrocities? The reason Lilly's life was ended by murdering her in gas chamber, was only because she was jewish.

[Oyinraji · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a heartfelt sincerity that runs through all of Nachimson’s works. Whether it’s Lilly’s Album, Polski Patriota, or Seeds of Love, he writes with emotional clarity about themes that are painful yet essential — displacement, identity, the Holocaust, and rebuilding a sense of self after immense loss. His characters often feel like extensions of real people, perhaps even of himself, carrying the echoes of memory and trauma.