Daniel Finkelsein, a political columnist at the London Times, tells the story of his Jewish parents and grandparents harrowing story of survival during World War II. His father and grandparents lived in Lwow, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) in successful and affluent circumstances when the Soviet Union divided up Poland with Hitler in 1939. They were deported to Soviet labor camps until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union and they were released to join the newly formed Polish Army. The army moved to Iran, which in those days was prosperous and allied with Britain. They then moved to Palestine and finally to Britain at the end of the war. His mother was one of three daughters of German Jews who had to move to the Netherlands to avoid the Nazis but were caught when the Germans invaded in 1940. Her father established the Weiner Library which cataloged the racial policies of the Nazis and escaped to London and subsequently to New York leaving his wife and daughters in Amsterdam. They were transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from which they managed to be exchanged for German interns in January 1945. When they reached Switzerland their mother died and the three girls found their way through France to the USA to join their father. They eventually reached London when his mother and father met.

The story illuminates the way in which cruelty and evil enters into the hearts of seemingly civilized people unless they are opposed and defeated. Despite feeling safe in Britain with his family and friends the author does not have confidence in it continuing. He writes: “The idea that the value of liberal democracy and law, and liberty and tolerance, is a lesson that has been learned and can’t be unlearned seems hopelessly overoptimistic. What happened to my parents isn’t about to happen to me. It isn’t about to happen to my children. But could it? Absolutely, it could. This is a story of love and murder. Of evil and consequences of evil. It’s the story of how my family took a vast journey that ended happily but on the way took a detour through hell.”

The rise of antisemitism in our day reminds us that the forces of history can return if not remembered what they can do to the most innocent and vulnerable in our society. False atheistic ideology and false religion can turn men into beasts. Look at what has happened in Iran, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia and Western universities. Only the truth can set us free, as Jesus said.