Darkness and Desolation - Memorial Book for 12 Communities in the Braslav Region - Hardcover

by Ariel Machnes (Editor), Rina Klinov (Editor), Jeff Deitch (Prepared by)

This is the English-language translation of Emesh Shoah, the memorial book for the Braslav region, now in northern Belarus. The book covers the town of Braslav, which had a prewar population of several thousand Jews, together with 11 smaller localities in the region, each with a prewar population of several hundred Jews (Yod, Dubina, Opsa, Rimshan, Yaisi, Slobodka) or fewer (Kislovshchitzna, Plusy, Zamosh, Okmenitz, Zarach). The book contains accounts by some 40 Jews from the region who survived the genocidal Nazi occupation in 1941-44, as well as a number of other accounts by Jews who had left the region before June 1941 and thus escaped the enemy.

Besides the accounts and accompanying photographs, there are sections on the historical background of Braslav, two prominent rabbis of the town as well as a scholar educated at YIVO, Jews from the Braslav region who fought as partisans or served in the Soviet and British armies, and the trial of a notorious Nazi collaborator that took place in 1963. Also included are a map of prewar Braslav, a map of prewar Opsa and a map of ghettos/partisan units in the region, together with a list of some 3,340 Jewish dead from the book's localities and a list of Gentiles in the region who saved Jews.
Four appendices contain a speech by a compiler of the original memorial book, a map of prewar Yod, a map and photographs of prewar Dubina, and background on Jewish partisans in Belarus.
Emesh Shoah, published in Israel in 1986, was mainly in Hebrew (496 pages), with short summaries in Yiddish and English (72 pages each). The English translation contained herein is a full translation of the 496 pages that were in Hebrew. A record of tragic loss and suffering as well as heroic resistance, the book commemorates lost families and communities.