27/01/2026
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Amsterdam Publishers releases a second memoir that bears witness to survival and the fragile power of human solidarity. Beneath the Lightless Sky by Ignacy Chiger brought to publication by his grandson is the first-hand account of a family caught between two totalitarian regimes. In the final month of his life, Ignacy Chiger sat down to record what he had lived through in wartime Lvov.
First, under Soviet occupation, marked by fear, surveillance, and deprivation. Then, under N**i rule, where persecution, forced labor, and death became daily realities. When the Lvov ghetto was transformed into a labor camp and liquidation loomed, Ignacy used ingenuity and determination to build hidden shelters and, ultimately, an underground escape route. That escape led his family into the city's sewers where they survived for fourteen months – together with other Jews – in darkness, hunger, and disease. Their survival depended on one another and on the courage of Polish sewage workers who risked their own lives to bring food, light, and hope to those hiding below.
Beneath the Lightless Sky is a powerful testament to endurance and the importance of community when humanity itself is under threat. On this day of remembrance, it reminds us why these stories must continue to be read, shared, and preserved.
https://mybook.to/SJfz
Doron Keren
