'Tunnel of Hope': The story of the Holocaust's biggest escape - review

As a child of nine when the war in Europe ended, I read about the Holocaust secretly. My parents and older siblings all attempted to keep the awful knowledge from me. But as it was my duty to wash up after family meals, and as the dirty plates had to be scraped onto and wrapped in newspaper, I read all the horrific details. From then on, I became afflicted by what would today be called survivor’s guilt.

It was therefore with deep admiration that I read the immensely important book Tunnel of Hope. Dr. Betty Brodsky Cohen, the daughter of Fanya Dunetz Brodsky, an escapee from the Novogrudok labor camp, has given names and faces to most who have no other memorial. She has devoted more than a decade of passionate and devoted research to this feat.

What was the tunnel of hope?

The Tunnel of Hope refers to the tunnel dug with bare hands and primitive tools by the inmates of the Novogrudok labor camp in present-day Belarus. These heroic inmates were the survivors of horrible Nazi massacres (there were previous massacres in all the small surrounding towns from which the inmates came as well as four massacres in Novogrudok alone prior to the escape) in which the majority of them lost many family members. The survivors clung to precarious life due to the fact that they possessed skills needed by the Nazis.

Though most of us have heard of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the escape from Sobibor, I confess that prior to reading this book I had heard of the Novogrudok tunnel escape. And yet, we learn in the book that the Warsaw Ghetto uprising may actually have been triggered by an earlier, false rumor of a revolt in Novogrudok that purportedly occured in 1942. With clandestine radios having existed within the walls of the Novogrudok labor camp, reports of the actual Warsaw uprising are likely to have then inspired the inmates in the Novogrudok labor camp to plan their own bold escape to freedom.

The bald facts are that on September 26, 1943, at least 227 people escaped through a tunnel, of whom 133 survived to join the partisans. Bald facts indeed. But the author has made the names, faces, and fates of those incredibly brave escapees known to us. Indeed, looking at the faces in the photos, few of us will fail to see a resemblance to our own loved ones. The book is a testament to the brotherhood of Jews from different backgrounds and differing degrees of religiosity working together, in frightening and perilous conditions, for the common good. Reading this book, I was amazed at the courage, tenacity, will to live, resourcefulness and sheer grit of these people, our people. They labored night after grueling night, after days of hard toil on starvation rations, to crawl through the dark. Laboriously, little by little, foot by foot, they dug with their bare hands and did not stop digging until they had reached their objective.

The escapees are listed in the order in which they made their hazardous way through the tunnel. Each and every one on the list is a hero. Each and every one of them, regardless of age or ability, was an equal partner and participant in the massive endeavor. I cannot give a review of each of these escapees, much as I would like to. For that, one must read the book.

But two stuck in my mind and in my heart. Avraham Rakovski, Escapee #10, was a leader of the resistance and, as an electrician, crucial to the success of the project. He managed to delay the deployment of the Nazis’ searchlights. He survived the escape only to tragically fall in the Soviet Army during the Battle for Berlin. The second escapee, #148, was Mordechai Maloshitsky, just six years old at the time of the escape, and the youngest known escapee. Sadly, neither he nor his father Yitzchak, who had protected him so valiantly, survived the escape.

Tribute is also paid to the heroic Bielski brothers as well as to those brave Christians who assisted the survivors. This book is a loving tribute to the collective spirit and Jewish brotherhood exemplified by the inmates of the Novogrudok labor camp working together with goodwill and for the common goal of remaining alive.

Brodsky Cohen, with admirable patience and persistence, has managed to trace the children of escapees, many of whom knew little or nothing of their parents’ past. The many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, living in Israel or abroad, are a legacy and memorial not only to those who survived the escape but also to the unfortunate ones who did not. The latter gave their lives so that others might live. ■

• Tunnel of Hope: Escape from the Novogrudok Forced Labor Camp
• Dr. Betty Brodsky Cohen
• Gefen Publishing House, 2024
• 716 pages, $34.95