Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

The Wall at the Sugar Factory by Sherry V. Ostroff is a heartrending and yet ultimately triumphal essay on man’s continuing inhumanity against his fellow man, especially as it pertains to European Jews. Long before the recognized Holocaust, Jews in Eastern Europe especially were already experiencing their version of the horror, routinely massacred and brutalized in a never-ending series of pogroms. Based on true events in the author’s family, this story records a fictionalized version of the author's grandmother's and mother’s long and dangerous battle to escape the violence in Ukraine and join her grandmother’s sister in New York. When Shaindel Pogrebiski’s husband is murdered, along with other members of his Jewish defense force, by a peasant army during the Russian Revolution, Shaindel knows her only hope for her and her beloved daughter Elta is to get out of Russia and join her sister Chava in New York where she has carved out a new, and most importantly, a safe life, for herself. Thus begins a years-long battle to obtain the funds, find a safe passage out of Russia, and then gain permission to immigrate to the United States. The years between her husband’s murder and her and her daughter’s arrival in the US will be filled with heartbreak, terror, and fear.

The Wall at the Sugar Factory is a tale of determination over adversity. While most of us are aware of what we today call the Holocaust, perpetrated by the Nazis, books such as this one remind us that the groundwork for Hitler’s Jewish extermination plans was laid over many centuries all across Europe, as Jews were frequently seen as suitable targets for anger, jealousy, blame, and violence. Author Sherry V. Ostroff has an intensely personal perspective on this narrative, given that she is fictionalizing her grandmother's and mother’s lives and journeys. This personal intensity shines through every page and one is left in awe at the immense courage and fortitude of those thousands who decided to abandon everything they knew and embark on the harshest of journeys to seek a haven for themselves and their children. The narrative and the writing style captivate from the very first page and drag you along, even through the most horrific of events. Both Shaindel and Elta are characters that you will celebrate. Although the young are remarkably resilient, Elta’s ability to rise above all that happened to and around her fills you with respect and admiration and Shaindel’s courage, as a mother alone on a perilous journey, is simply awe-inspiring. This is an exceptional book, an amazing story, and one that lifts the human spirit despite the atrocities that occur within. I can highly recommend this read; it is a wonderful story.