Historical novel highlights little known piece of WW II history

“Six Thousand Miles to Home” by Kim Dana Kupperman. Legacy Edition Books, 2018.

 

This book, written as a novel, is based upon a true story about a Jewish family from Teschen, Poland, who fled their home in hopes of avoiding the Nazis who were making their way into Eastern Europe. The family believes they will be safer in Lwow, but Julius Kohn, the father, is arrested and soon the mother Josefina and her two children, Suzanna and Peter, are sent to a Russian gulag in northern Russia. They suffer in a train composed of boxcars in each of which more than 20 people are riding without food or water. Finally they arrive at the gulag in the middle of nowhere.

The book follows the family as they work for their Russian captors. Peter becomes strong enough he eventually is drafted into the Polish army. Suzanna takes care of a little girl who has no family. Josefina works hard. Finally several months later, they and other prisoners are released and transported out of the Soviet Union. They have no idea where they are going, but it is certainly not back to Poland or Germany. To their surprise, they end up in Iran.

Kupperman describes the experiences and struggles of the Kohn family in exquisite detail. How they survive all these trials and emerge stronger that before is an amazing story. The Jewish community in Iran is welcoming. Finally they are no longer starving, no longer forced to work long hours, and they are able to openly practice their Judaism again. It would spoil the book for potential readers to go into details about the Kohns’ ability to survive. However, there is no doubt that “Six Thousand Miles to Home” is highly recommended and well worth reading.

 

Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian and award-winning book reviewer who speaks throughout the community on various topics related to books and reading.