The author, a Polish Jew who spent the war years in America, was sent back to Poland by a Jewish charitable organization in 1946. It was his job to evaluate the situation of the Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors and report back as to what they needed and what could be done for them. The result was this book.

They say that journalism is the first draft of history and that is evident here; there were a lot of inaccuracies in the book. A lot of proper names, like those of concentration camps for instance, were misspelled. The author gives his own version of the legendary execution of Mala Zimetbaum, who escaped from Auschwitz with her boyfriend in 1944 only to be caught and executed before the entire camp. Pat calls her "Maly" and doesn't mention her lover at all.

But this book is worth reading even if it isn't 100% accurate. Pat is passionate about his fellow Jews in Poland and recounts a lot of amazing stories of courage and survival under fire. ( )