Aleksandr Bergman was born in Riga, Latvia in 1925. The son of a teacher, his youth was filled with the promise of a vibrant European future – until the world caught fire.

At 15, Aleksandr watched as the Red Army shuttered his country’s borders. But the Soviet occupation was only the beginning of the nightmare. In June 1941, the Nazis entered Riga, and the life he knew vanished forever.

This is what happened after.

From the mass executions of the Riga Ghetto to the harrowing depths of the Kaiserwald, Stutthof, and Buchenwald concentration camps, Aleksandr bears witness to the darkest corners of the human experience. Yet, amidst unthinkable inhumanity, his story is defined by a different force: unyielding resilience. Liberated from Buchenwald, Aleksandr decided to return to Riga. To honor his parents’ murdered dreams, he built a life from the ashes – graduating in law, raising a family, and ensuring his grandchildren became the living legacy the regime tried to extinguish.

In his later years, Aleksandr became the voice for the 70,000 Latvian Jews who perished, founding the Latvian Ghetto and Concentration Camps Prisoners Association. This book is more than a Holocaust memoir; it is a flame of memory for the 90% of the Jewish population of Latvia lost to history, and a testament to the “tree of life” that continues to grow against all odds.

TO BE RELEASED: 30 November 2026