Until Our Last Breath

“A powerful tale of the triumph of love under extremely difficult conditions,” tells the story of a married couple who were part of the Jewish Resistance (Publishers Weekly).

At his father’s funeral, one of the mourners told Michael Bart that the gravestone should include a reference to the Freedom Fighters of Nekamah, to honor Leizer Bart’s involvement in the Jewish resistance movement in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, at the end of World War II. Michael had never heard his parents referenced as Freedom Fighters.

Michael embarked on a ten-year research project to find out more details about his parents’ time in the Vilna ghetto, where they met, fell in love, and married, and about their activities as members of the Jewish resistance. Until Our Last Breath is the culmination of his research, and his parents’ story of love and survival.

Zenia, Bart’s mother, was born and raised in Vilna. Leizer fled there to escape the Nazi invasion of his hometown of Hrubieshov in Poland. They were married by one of the last remaining rabbis ninety days before the liquidation of the ghetto. Zenia and Leizer, along with about 120 members of the Vilna ghetto underground, escaped to the Rudnicki forest. They became part of the Jewish partisan fighting group led by Abba Kovner—known as the Avengers—which carried out sabotage missions against the Nazi army and eventually participated in the liberation of Vilna.

Until Our Last Breath is intensely personal and painstakingly researched, a lasting memorial to the Jews of Vilna.

“A work of exceptional historical importance.” —Booklist

“Appeals equally to the head and the heart.” —Kirkus Reviews