Sasha Pechersky : Holocaust hero, Sobibor resistance leader, and hostage of history

This is the story of Aleksandr "Sasha" Pechersky who, on October 14, 1943, led a mass escape of inmates from Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. It shows the tremendous difference in the memorial cultures between Western and Eastern societies and also how Jews were not passive in the face of German violence. Pechersky, along with other Russian and Jewish inmates who had been prisoners of the Nazis, was considered suspect by the Russian government simply because he survived. He was sent to the front in a Red Army penal battalion fighting the Nazis. After the war, Pechersky was not recognized as a hero. On the contrary, he was arrested during the Stalinist anti-cosmopolitan campaign (1948-53) and he died in poverty, social isolation, and despair. Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-231) and index. xiii, 237 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm.