The Janowska Road

Author: Leon Wells

Originally published in 1963, The Janowska Road remains one of the most important accounts of Jewish life during the Holocaust. The book is the harrowing account of Wells's experiences from his 16th to his 20th year in Lvov, Poland, from 1941–45. Most of that time was spent as a prisoner in the Janowska concentration camp.

Wells would later testify that he was the only member of his family—including his parents, six siblings, cousins, and uncles, numbering 76 in all—to survive the Holocaust. He survived by becoming part of the "Death Brigade" at Janowska, whose job it was to obliterate with bonfires and bone-crushers the evidence of the Third Reich's guilt: thousands upon thousands of human corpses. Following the war, Wells immigrated to the United States. Leon Wells passed away on December 19, 2009, at the age of 84.

Paperback

326 pages