Leiby: Border Smuggler

The Riveting Tale of a Jewish Boy at the
Post-War European Borders

"There's someone missing!" Koppel told Meitek when he had finished

calling the names. "I counted the children twice and there are only

eighty-eight here. There are eighty-nine on the list. Someone's gone

missing."

"It's Pavel, he ran away, I'm sure of it," Sandy interrupted the

conversation. "When we were told to pack our belongings and make

our way to the trucks outside, he just ran away. I saw on his face

that he was planning to run away."

"Why didn't you stop him?" Koppel reproached him. "Why didn't you

at least tell us?"

"He'd been planning to escape for ages, and it's better for us that

way. He would only have made trouble on the journey. You don't

have to be upset that he didn't come with us."

"We'll never give up on any Jew, Sandy. Every Jewish child is a

treasure."

Leiby, a young thirteen-year-old boy, was a brave Jewish partisan

in the European forests during the war. In the aftermath of the war,

he surreptitiously smuggled countless groups of Jewish children

over the border, out of blood-drenched Poland, and on their way to

freedom. Armed Polish resistance fighters constantly hounded the

smugglers, dogging their steps and threatening their very lives.

This historical tale is based on refugees' and activists' evidence and

memoirs, as well as newspaper articles from the period, bringing to

Life a true depiction of post-war Poland, of relations between Jews

and their Polish counterparts, and between the various factions of

Jews that existed at the time. Readers of all ages will find this book

unique and impossible to put down, from the very first page until its

breathtaking conclusion.