“These are my last words…” is a sentence found over and over again in this unique volume of letters written by those who would not survive the Holocaust. The letters were uncovered over the last 60 years, hoarded by the victims’ families and friends, and ultimately collected by Yad Vashem, the largest Holocaust Museum in Israel.

These last letters were sent from the ghettos, hidden in the cattle cars and train stations, and smuggled out of the concentration camps. Each short letter describes the end of a difficult journey even as it reveals the raw emotions of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers trying desperately to tell their story before it is too late.

“It is impossible to critique a collection of those who are about to die. Or even to make a precise of the 117 last letters, because each slip of paper includes the life of a human being, and the fate of the entire family… This is a very difficult book to read… nevertheless, it is life-affirming… Heart wrenching work to gather the last letters, classify them and arrange them not by date or country but by contents… This is a collection not so much for the benefit of readers and scholars but for the writers, for most of whom each page is an epitaph they did not have.” [Ruth Bondi, Ha’aretz Literary Supplement, 26 March 2003]

“No explanations but letters appear as they were written, days or minutes before death… A quiet scream that rends the heart… even decades after they were written…” [Tamar Nesher-Rati, Makor Rishon, 7 February 2003]