From Malice to Ashes: Forest of No Mercy by Gary W. Toyn

 

OMG!!!!! Ok, I’m not certain what I was expecting when I began listening to this novel, but it surely wasn’t the riveting, yet sobering tale of horror, loved ones and family and what happened during WWII. It is a very well researched and largely forgotten chapter of the Holocaust. What a nightmare for those who experienced it on the wrong end of the hatred and horrible machinations of the Nazi’s. 

This novel is inspired by actual events. It spans Nazi occupied Lithuania, the Soviet labour camps, and the refugee corridors of wartime Europe. Those who helped the refugees, and fought the deadly killing machine spurred by unfounded hatred usually gave their lives, but not always. Those people are the heroes in my mind. But, I digress…

It is a tale of three families, torn apart by two brutal and monstrous regimes. An all enveloping and compelling read. Insidious in the way it drags you back in when you have a spare moment, or has you thinking and wondering about it when you are unable to listen.

Olek Kosmen is a student, who was raised Catholic, the only thing showing her was born Jewish - his circumcision. Olek’s fiancée and her brother flee to neutral Sweden from Lithuania. From there her brother goes on to America where he joins the fight against the Nazi’s. Their parents, briefly meet up with Olek and allow him to stay in their cottage in the Ponary (Paneriari) Forest. The parents are subsequently apprehended and taken to the frozen gulags of Siberia. 

Unfortunately neither Olek, nor Leva’s parents know the horrors and dangers that the Ponary will hold for Olek in the coming months. It is the site of massacre after massacre as the German Einsatzgruppen and their Lithuanian auxiliaries murdered thousands of Jewish residents of Vilna (Vilnius) at this specially contrived killing site. The Jewish prisoners were made to dig deep pits, then strip and were summarily shot. The next wave would cover the first with sand or dirt and the process was repeated. It is estimated that 40,000 Jews were slaughtered. Olek becomes a chronicler of the events of horror.

Olek discovers a wounded boy, Mordecai, who managed to escape from the pits and cares for him despite the dangers. Until Olek is captured and forced to join the ‘Burning Brigade,’ a special prisoner unit forced to exhume the bodies and burn them to hide the war crime. His survival seems impossible, but Olek never gives up. As for what happens to them all… read it and find out!

An all too close look at the holocaust to be called comfortable. This is a great novel, well written, pieced together from historical documents and facts that shows its readers what was happening during one of the ugliest periods of documented history.

It reminds readers what happens when hatred goes unchallenged, and in an age where antisemitism is on the rise once more, it’s a warning to the people of the world. Don’t expect it to tuck you in with a warm and cuddly feeling at night, but don’t miss it either!

Matt Armstrong’s work with the narration is admirable! His character voices are some of the best I’ve heard, and give personality to each of the characters that Gary has created. I really enjoyed this audiobook, and am glad for the knowledge it imparted. 

Thanks to NetGalley and American Legacy Media for the audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

12 hours and 30 minutes