Yochanan Fein, A boy with a violin 2009 — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

The book is read as a testimonial story and as a sweeping and engaging novel, set in the midst of World War II, moving across the Kovno Ghetto, hiding places, hardships, and wanderings, until the arrival of the narrator in Israel.

With his careful observation, with exemplary frugality, with a remarkable amount of balance and restraint, Fein recounts the wonder of his survival, interpreting an existential sheet of fascinating plot and human mosaic of characters engraved in memory in their unrelenting struggle against cruelty and horror at the height of hell. Rare acts in their humanity offer the reader the opportunity to understand the human being's resistance to evil, while holding on to the degree of grace, mercy and compassion that are intensified against a world that is falling apart from its human values.

Further reading: Survivor Yochanan Fein’s Memoirs Presented in Lithuanian in Kaunas