Rather Die Fighting: A Memoir of World War II

by Frank Blaichman, Martin Gilbert (Introduction)

Overview

Frank Blaichman was sixteen years old when the war broke out. In 1942, the killings began in Poland. With his family and friends decimated by the roundups, Blaichman decided that he would rather die fighting; he set off for the forest to find the underground bunkers of Jews who had already escaped. Together they formed a partisan force dedicated to fighting the Germans. This is a harrowing, utterly moving memoir of a young Polish Jew who chose not to go quietly and defied the mighty German war machine during World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611450156
Publisher:	Arcade Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Frank Blaichman helped organize the establishment of the Jewish Fighters Monument at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Cesia, a fellow partisan, have two children and six grandchildren, and live in New York City.

Sir Martin Gilbert, the distinguished official biographer of Churchill, is a fellow at Merton College, Oxford. His impressive body of work includes Churchill: A Life, The Holocaust, and The Second World War: A Complete History. In 1995, he was knighted for services to British history and international relations, and in 2009, he was appointed to the British Government’s Iraq War Inquiry. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Chapter I Days of Terror and a Decision to Escape 3

Chapter II From Farmhouse to Forest 20

Chapter III Finding Allies, Killing Collaborators 52

Chapter IV The Raid on Leszec Castle 78

Chapter V Russian Airdrops and Sabotage Missions 103

Chapter VI Final Engagements and the German Retreat 148

Chapter VII Return to Poland 191

A Memorial to All Jewish Fighters in World War II 197

Honor Roll of Partisan Fighters 205

Acknowledgments 209