Now a retired university academic living in Jerusalem, Katz was born into a well-to-do Jewish family who owned a thriving grocery shop and export business in Jaroslaw, a smallish town in southeastern Poland. In 1939, the Katz family was expelled by the Gestapo from Jaroslaw into the Soviet-occupied eastern part of Poland. From there, they were moved to a remote area of southern Siberia, and later allowed to settle in a city in northern Kazakhstan, before eventually returning to Poland after the war. Katz's is one of the few memoirs available in English of the Jewish refugees who were deported to the Soviet Union. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
