Notes from the Sausage Factory Book

This story of a Lithuanian Jewish family that survived the holocaust held me spellbound. What unleashes such demons of death and destruction upon mankind? "Never again" is a noble slogan but genocide has happened time and time again since Nazi Germany. Izzy's family knew a Christian farmer who provided shelter for his family and others who escaped from the Kovno ghetto. I can't fathom the courage it took for this farm family to provide refuge for their Jewish countrymen. If they had been caught it would have been an instant death sentence. The farmer's wife in "Izzy's Fire" fed thirteen people, living underground in a potato field, every day for three years. Her own family had barely enough food to survive. After being entombed for so long, the Jewish survivors were giddy with joy when the Russian army liberated their country. I give this book the highest rating. It both terrifies me and gives me renewed faith in the everyday goodness of ordinary people.