We fol­low Berek, the con­duit for the tes­ti­mo­ny, from the Pol­ish shtetl of his child­hood to his expe­ri­ences dur­ing the Holo­caust — the most hor­rif­ic of which occurred dur­ing his incar­cer­a­tion in Sobi­bor. We learn, in great detail, about his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the upris­ing and his even­tu­al escape from the camp. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est is infor­ma­tion on the leader of the upris­ing, Alexan­der Pech­er­sky, includ­ing the plan­ning, prob­lem solv­ing, and coor­di­na­tion that was involved in exe­cut­ing a suc­cess­ful escape. Yet it is the relent­less efforts of Berek and oth­er Nazi hunters through which we par­tic­i­pate, albeit vic­ar­i­ous­ly, in the tri­als of two of the most vicious admin­is­tra­tors of Sobi­bor. We are awed at the hunters’ deter­mi­na­tion to locate and bring these war crim­i­nals to jus­tice for their unspeak­able acts. 

If you choose to read this book, do so with the expec­ta­tion that it will engen­der a range of emo­tions — anger, dis­tress, dis­be­lief— which, it is to say, pale in com­par­i­son to what Berek and his fel­low pris­on­ers expe­ri­enced at the hands of the Nazis in the Sobi­bor camp. Epi­logue and intro­duc­to­ry essay.