Odyssey of an Apple Thief

Moishe Rozenbaumas' memoir, The Odyssey of an Apple Thief, chronicles his life from his Lithuanian boyhood to his escape from Soviet Russia to Paris, offering a rare portrait of working-class Jewish youth in Telz/Telsiai and his experiences as a starved refugee and Soviet Army cadre.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2019
Publisher: Syracuse University Press

In his captivating memoir, The Odyssey of an Apple Thief, Moishe Rozenbaumas (1922–2016) vividly recounts his remarkable life journey, spanning from his childhood in Lithuania to the perilous experiences that took him across Europe and Central Asia, and back again, to his daring escape from Soviet Russia to establish a new life in Paris. Along the way, readers are granted a rare glimpse into the lives of working-class Jewish youth in Telz/Telsiai, a religious town renowned for its prestigious yeshiva. The narrative delves into the playful antics of children, the daring theft of apples from a Catholic orchard, and Rozenbaumas's early apprenticeship as a tailor, which he pursued after his father's departure from the country.

The outbreak of World War II brings a tumultuous turn to Rozenbaumas's life, as he embarks on a solitary escape from Lithuania, desperately attempting to persuade his mother and sibling to join him. The story unfolds as he becomes a starving refugee in an Uzbek kolkhoz, narrowly escaping into the Red Army, and subsequently finding himself in the enigmatic realm of Soviet Army reconnaissance. Post-war, Rozenbaumas is drafted into the Marxist-Leninist university and becomes a cadre of the Communist Party, ultimately orchestrating his family's escape to Paris in 1956.

In the vast tapestry of memory written by Jewish witnesses before, during, and after WWII, Rozenbaumas's account stands out for its singularity and his masterful storytelling of events of mythological proportions from a personal perspective. The Odyssey of an Apple Thief offers not only invaluable testimony of this historical epoch but also presents an illuminating and original portrayal of Lithuanian Jews in the twentieth century.

Weight: 396g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780815636441