File:2008 Eilati en.jpg

Shalom reunited with his father, Israel Kaplan, in March 1946 in Munich, Germany

{en} Shalom Eilati Crossing the River (Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2008. <English ed.>

• English ed. of ‏לחצות את הנהר <Hebrew> (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1999).

• See Shalom Kaplan / Shalom Eilati (M / Lithuania, 1933), Holocaust survivor

Abstract

"Crossing the River is a personal memoir-and more. Against the backdrop of Lithuania's occupation-first by the Red Army, next by the Germans, and then again by the Russians-it is a story reflected through the prism of a sharp-eyed young child, Shalom Eilati. His story starts in the occupied Kovno Ghetto and ends with his flight across the Soviet border, through Poland and Germany and finally, his arrival in Palestine. The adult survivor, while recalling the terrorized child that he was and how he then perceived the adult world, also takes stock of his present life. Throughout the memoir, Eilati attempts to reconcile his present life as a husband, father, scientist, and writer, with the images, feelings, and thoughts from the past that have left an indelible mark on his life and that continue to haunt him."--Publisher description.

Contents

How it began -- Summer -- Autumn -- Winter -- The quiet season/childhood in the ghetto -- Another Fall and Winter -- Spring -- Escape -- On green hill -- In the village -- Liberation -- A new year -- Second year/seven journeys.