In the Shadow of Destruction Recollections of Transnistria and the Illegal Immigration to Eretz Israel

This is a personal account of a young boy's struggle to survive the Holocaust in Transnistria. The descriptions are presented against the background of unfolding events, combining personal recollections with a historic overview, before, during and after the Holocaust. The author was ten when Bessarabia and North Bucovina were invaded by the German and Romanian armies in July 1941. Interned with his mother in the Moghilev Ghetto, the author describes the daily struggle to survive, and the economic and medical support received from the remaining Jewish communities in Romania. The ghetto was liberated by the Soviet Army in March 1944. In December 1946, the author and his mother embarked on a cargo ship on the Adriatic coast heading for Eretz Israel. After being detained by the British Navy and taken to Atlit, they were released in December 1947, on the eve of Israel's War of Independence. The Hebrew edition of this book was chosen by a public committee of Israel's Ministry of Education as one of the 35 best books published in Israel in 1999.

Yosef Govrin was Director of the Ministry's East European Department, after which he was appointed Israel's Ambassador to Romania, Deputy Director-General of the Ministry, and Ambassador to Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and to the UNO in Vienna.