A Hard-hitting Biographical Novel Based on the Life Story of Yankel, a Survivor of the Transnistrian Killing Fields
Zvi Wiesenfeld recounts the experiences of his grandfather Yankel and his family who lived in Czernowitz, Romania during a time of increasing antisemitism and the horrors of WWll which caused irreplaceable loss and suffering. The Man Across the River is an emotional but important story of the inhumane actions that occurred in a country which supported the Nazi regime, and the profound effects it had on its victims.
Yankel’s simple life is upended when the Nazis invade Romania in this biographical novel. As the fascist dictator Ion Antonescu imposes increasingly ruthless antisemitic edicts, the horrors of the Holocaust are visited on Romania’s Jewish community. Stripped of their rights, Yankel’s family is forced from their home in Czernowitz and sent on a long and dangerous journey across the Dniester River to Transnistria – the Ukrainian killing fields. Through the ghettos and labor camps of Ukraine, the front lines of the Red Army, and the displaced persons camps of Italy, death stalks Yankel at every turn as he struggles to survive.
Listen to an interview with Zvi Wiesenfeld on Yom Hashoah 8 April 2021.
