A twelve-year-old boy named Peisach is snatched from his home in a shtetl near Vitebsk in 1842 and marched far away to be prepared for 25 years of service in the Russian Imperial Army. Six years later, he will be assigned to a garrison in Viipuri, a city in eastern Finland, where his children and grandchildren will be born. Upon his discharge, Peisach will survive by mending second-hand clothes and peddling them on the market square. His son, Mendel, a hat maker, will strive to avoid deportation and enter the middle class as Finland, a grand duchy of the Russia Empire, lurches towards independence while Russia tries to tighten the reins of control. Peisach's grandson, Benjamin, ends up in the absurd situation of fighting alongside German troops on the Eastern Front in WWII as an openly Jewish soldier in the Finnish army. Like the other 266 Jewish soldiers in the Finnish army at the time, he is in a no-win situation. If the Soviets succeed in occupying Finland, he will be killed or sent to a gulag; if the Germans win, he will be sent to a death camp. He is hopelessly in love with Rachel, who is serving in the Women's Auxiliary and in as much danger as he is. Through bravery, determination, strong leadership and luck, Finland avoids occupation in its three wars between 1939 and 1945, and its Jewish citizens survive unscathed except for the 23 who are felled in combat by enemy fire. The story of Finland's Jews is unique, as is the story of their country's survival on the razor's edge between East and West. Whether read as a love story, a family chronicle, or the history of a little-known country and its tiny Jewish population, Strangers in a Stranger Land conveys the drama and complexity inherent in the dilemmas faced by this small country and its tiny Jewish minority as the Second World War approached and then engulfed them in bloody conflict the Finns tried hard to avoid.
List of Figures Preface 1. Iron Cross for a Jew? 2. Benjamin Reminisces about his Childhood 3. Vidablick 4. Peisach Loses Everything 5. Benjamin Remembers His Grandfather 6. Finland Becomes Part of the Russian Empire 7. Annus Mirabilis 8. Peisach Gets a Life 9. Correspondence after Camp 10. Benjamin Recalls His Family's Return to Viipuri 11. Mendel's Childhood 12. A Little Bird 13. Upheaval 14. Civil War 15. Finland Lurches Right 16. Benjamin Thinks Back on Hard Times 17. Mendel Becomes a Finn 18. Finland Recovers 19. Benjamin Reflects on the Rise of Zionism 20. Loyalty Parallax 21. Rachel Makes a Decision 22. David and the Refugee Situation 23. Benjamin Becomes the Man of the House 24. Benjamin Recalls His Adolescence 25. Europe in Turmoil 26. Lotta Training and Civil Guard Youth Camp 27. A Night on the Town 28. The Magical Summer of '39 29. Benjamin Recalls the Start of the Winter War 30. The Winter War Begins 31. Finland's Survival at Risk 32. Benjamin Remembers Wartime Viipuri 33. A Bitter Peace 34. Finland's Fragile Truce 35. Benjamin Reflects on His Altered Status 36. Hitler Changes His Mind 37. Pressure Mounts 38. A Night at the Theater 39. Afraid of Being Eaten by the Bear, the Lamb Lies Down with the Wolf 40. Miracles Sometimes Happen 41. Benjamin on Heroism and Fear 42. Benjamin Goes to War 43. Rachel Crosses the Border 44. David's Battlefront Diary 45. Finland Walks a Tightrope 46. Tent Synagogue on the German Front 47. "Those Eight" 49. Benjamin's Recollections of the Trench War 49. Rachel Meets the Steinbocks 50. The Worm Turns 51. The Beginning of the End 52. Waiting 53. Against Overwhelming Odds 54. All Hell Breaks Loose 55. What Price Peace? 57. Aftermath About the Author
