No Road Leading Back

An Improbable Escape from the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust

De: Chris Heath

Narrado por: Vas Eli

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST • This by turns shattering and hope-giving account of prisoners who dug their way to freedom from the Nazis is both a stunning escape narrative and an object lesson in the ways we remember and continually forget the particulars of the Holocaust.

No Road Leading Back is the remarkable story of a dozen prisoners who escaped from the site where more than 70,000 Jews were shot in the Lithuanian forest of Ponar after the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe in 1941. Anxious to hide the incriminating evidence of the murders, the S.S. later in the war enslaved a group of Jews to exhume every one of the bodies and incinerate them all in a months-long labor—an episode whose specifics are staggering and disturbing, even within the context of the Holocaust.

From within that dire circumstance emerges the improbable escape made by some of the men, who dug a tunnel with bare hands and spoons while they were trapped and guarded day and night—an act not just of bravery and desperation but of awesome imagination. Based on first-person accounts of the escapees and on each scrap of evidence that has been documented, repressed, or amplified since, this book resurrects their lives, while also providing a complex, urgent analysis of why their story has rarely been told, and never accurately. Heath explores the cultural use and misuse of Holocaust testimony and the need for us to face it—and all uncomfortable historical truths—with honesty and accuracy.

©2024 Chris Heath (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

One of The Smithsonian’s “10 Best History Book of 2024"

“This is one of the best books written about the Shoah by Bullets. Clearly written, superbly researched, it's a fascinating reminder of an unjustly neglected story about the Holocaust. Never pious or sentimental, the book twists and turns, asking all the complicated questions a fine history book should.”—David Herman, Chief Reviewer of The Jewish Chronicle

“No Road Leading Back is an unparalleled work of journalistic research with profound importance for the field of Holocaust studies, but even more so, it is a moving story of human endurance, perseverance, and hope—even when all hope seems lost.”—Washington Independent Review of Books

“A stunning book, a powerful investigation, utterly compelling, at times stomach-churning and deeply shocking, but also by turns tragic, wistful and curiously uplifting. . . . There are timely questions here of the fragility of historical truth. Just as compelling, however, is the final part of the book and Heath’s own journey of investigation and discovery….This one will sit with me for long months to come.”—James Holland, The Telegraph