Overview

Sobering, meticulously researched, and emotionally raw.” —BookLife Reviews (Publisher’s Weekly) – Editor’s Pick

“A piercing and detailed look at a lesser-known aspect of the Second World War.” — Kirkus Reviews

Before Auschwitz, before the gas chambers, there was Ponary—a forest outside Vilnius where 75,000 Jews were executed during World War II. In the beginning, the killers weren’t the Nazis. They were neighbors. From Malice to Ashes: is a haunting historical novel that reveals one of the Holocaust’s earliest and most overlooked atrocities—the Ponary Massacre in Lithuania—where local militias carried out mass murder while SS officers stood by and took notes.

Olek Kosmen, a young Jewish man, becomes an unwilling eyewitness and chronicler. Hiding in the woods, he secretly records the horrors in a journal—until he’s captured and forced into the “Burning Brigade,” a prisoner unit ordered to exhume and destroy the bodies to hide the crime. Meanwhile, his fiancée escapes to neutral Sweden, and her family is exiled to the frozen gulags of Siberia. Their survival depends on impossible choices—and an escape tunnel dug with bare hands beneath a mass grave. Meticulously researched and deeply moving, this story is not just a look back at history—it’s a warning. In an age when antisemitism is once again on the rise, From Malice to Ashes reminds us what happens when hatred goes unchallenged and silence becomes complicity.

Review

Olek Kosmen, a young Jewish man, becomes an unwilling eyewitness and chronicler of the Ponary massacre. Meanwhile, his fiancée escapes to neutral Sweden, and her family is exiled to the frozen gulags of Siberia. Their survival depends on impossible choices.

One of the main things I loved about this book was the setting. The setting is not Germany or England as with most of the WWII novels. This is set in Lithuania and Siberia. I found this unique. But the tragic circumstances are the same. And this author brings those front and center.

I will say, some of the conversations were a bit “canned” and it is a bit wordy in places. But the intensity just keeps building.

This is a moving story that will break your heart but shows true resilience and strength.

The narrator, Matt Strong, did a good job. He did keep the story moving smoothly. I do believe the conversations in certain areas were the issue for me.

Need a unique WWII novel…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

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