The Remnant (On Burning Wings: To a Displaced Persons Camp and Beyond)

Michael and his sister fled their home in Dubno, Poland, as panicked teenagers in June 1941, and landed in the Soviet Union amid the raging war. A flashback catches them in Stalingrad, besieged by the Germans. A stroke of luck landed them in Uzbekistan where Michael excelled as a veterinary assistant. Two years later, the Soviet Army drafted Michael and trained him to remove mines planted by retreating Germans. After a dogged search, his sister found him and persuaded him to desert. An overnight train took them to Samarkand where they set up shop as weavers and Michael studied Economics at night. At war’s end, they hastened home and witnessed the mass graves of Dubno’s 8,000 Jews, including their parents. Threatened, they found Moniek’s mother and cousins and headed to a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. Britain dashed Michael’s hopes to go to Palestine. A year later, Hillel surprisingly awarded him a scholarship to Colby College, where he arrived in 1947. He transferred to MIT and began to build a new life.