Alexandre and his family live in Poland, which is partitioned in 1939, followed by a brief period of Soviet rule full of tension and fear. This is followed by the German invasion and occupation which brings depression and debasement to the Jews. Locked up by the Nazis in the ghetto in 1941, he escaped in February 1943 and spent 18 months in hiding before emigrating to France. This work is a memoir written from the perspective of a Jewish boy between his seventh and seventeenth year. The author describes a childhood and adolescence swept away - family, friends and playmates - were sucked into the extermination world of Nazi Germany.