Jacob "Izzy" Rabinowitz is a partner with his brothers in a successful textile firm, Feivel Rabinowitz and Sons, founded in the late 19th century in Bielitz (Bielsko), a city in Southwestern Poland. With the advent of WWII, Jacob and his family try to flee, but are intercepted and transported to Kazakhstan. With cleverness and some luck, they survive the hardships and ultimately return to the starting point after the war with the ambition to go to Palestine. Working their way through many difficulties, they reach their goal in time to see the State of Israel born. The turns in the path to survival are many; Izzy tells the tale in an accessible, conversational way that makes one want to find out more. The translator, Ruth L. Hohberg, is a grandniece of Izzy; she met him in Jerusalem in 1954. His notebooks came into her possession in the late 1990s.