Sholom Schwarzburd was the third cousin of my mother, Sarah.  And my maternal grandfather, my grandfather Zvi Hirsh Modik, was the second cousin of Sholom’s mother, Chai Weisberger. He was born in Balti, a watchmaker and a poet.  And he shot Petlyura in Paris for the bloody Jewish pogroms in Ukraine and for the murder of 15 people in our family during the 1919 Proskurov pogrom»… my grandfather said.

Many of my relatives eagerly awaited the appearance of this book, and among them, my dear uncle Grisha, Grigory Viktorovich Finkel, who recently left us prematurely. He was the elder brother of my father and a man who faced many trials in life, possessing the spirit of heroism, just like Sholom Schwarzburd…

Welcome behind me, dear reader… One of the classics said that writers usually write their books either about the heroes they passionately love or about those they intensely hate. I deeply love my hero and am proud of him.

This book is about the Holocaust before the Holocaust. About the forgotten Holocaust that happened in the fragments of the Russian Empire a hundred years ago… Many have unfortunately forgotten about these dreadful calamities, as even more massive and horrifying disasters took their place. But it is our duty to remember everything and forget nothing…»

Rabbi Mikhail Finkel.