Jeffrey Koerber offers a comparison of mid-twentieth-century Jewish life in Vitebsk and Grodno, two Belarusian towns that found themselves on opposite sides of the Soviet–Polish border until the Soviet occupation of 1939 brought them together, twenty-one months before the German invasion of June 1941.

In prewar Soviet Vitebsk, Koerber writes, Jewish identity was based on nationality rather than religion, secular Yiddish schooling was the norm (at least until 1938), and Jews, with their foreign ties, were increasingly subject to arrest and persecution by Soviet authorities as the purges and terror intensified. Across the border in Polish-controlled Grodno, on the other hand, Jewish communal life was centered around the synagogue, the kehillah (the organized Jewish community), and a vibrant Zionist youth movement, while on the street Jewish shops were often subjected to picketing and boycotts, and a 1935 pogrom left three Jews dead and dozens injured. Whereas in Soviet Vitebsk Jews were commonly associated with the Soviet government, in Polish Grodno they were accused of being unpatriotic and disloyal to the Polish state.

In September 1939, the Germans invaded Grodno, followed a week later by the arrival of Soviet forces and the departure of the Germans. The newcomers immediately arrested members of the old Polish elites. Many Poles blamed the Jews for the arrests, arguing that the Jews were in league with the Soviets. Certainly, Jews in the town had welcomed the Red Army as a respite from the Wehrmacht, but the Soviet government was equally repressive toward Jewish institutions, banning kosher slaughter and closing down Jewish social and cultural organizations. Pioneers and the Communist Youth took over from the Zionists. Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland made their way into town, taxing welfare services. When the Soviet government began distributing passports in November, many of these refugees returned to the German occupation zone rather than accept Soviet citizenship. Others who hesitated were forcibly deported by the Soviet secret police. Jews from the former Polish lands still had little contact with those from prewar Soviet areas, except in the Red Army, into which growing numbers of Jews were drafted.

With the German invasion of June 1941, both Grodno and Vitebsk found themselves under German administration. In Vitebsk, hundreds of Jews were shot by Einsatzgruppen in the initial weeks of the invasion, thousands more were taken into slave-labor battalions, and a ghetto was established. By the fall of 1941, the killings had intensified as thousands of Jews were shot in a ravine outside of Vitebsk and the size of the ghetto was greatly reduced. In Grodno, as well, two ghettos were established in the fall of 1941. There Jews tried to reestablish communal life as rumors filtered in about the fate of the Jews in the larger Warsaw and Vilna ghettos. Mass deportations from the Grodno ghettos took place between November 1942 and February 1943, with most Jews sent to their deaths in Auschwitz-Birkenau or Treblinka. Only a few survived in hiding, in resistance, or in the camps.

The story Koerber tells is a familiar one. Elissa Bemporad, Arkadii Zeltser, and Anika Walke, among others, have explored Jewish life in Soviet Belarus, whereas scholars like Jan Gross, Jeffrey Kopstein, and others have explored the situation in northeastern Poland/western Belarus. By putting the two stories together, though, Koerber opens up new possibilities of comparison. However, the stories he tells are really parallel stories. One longs for the type of comparative analysis that would give readers more of an indication of how Jewish politics, culture, and society affected outcomes before and during the war. What new insights can be garnered from such a comparative approach? What is the methodological innovation that Koerber employs?

What the book may lack in analytical novelty, it makes up for in a clear and compelling narrative. Koerber brings to life the tragic stories of the Jews of Vitebsk and Grodno through memoirs and personal accounts, painting a vivid picture of these communities, with a focus on the choices individuals made and the ways in which their lives were impacted by forces well beyond their control.