One of The Smithsonian’s “10 Best History Book of 2024″
An ALA Notable Book
“Meticulously researched. . . [No Road Leading Back] illuminates Nazi atrocities at Ponar, while also delving into why this site of mass murder has been historically treated as a footnote. . . . Through it all, Heath invites readers to consider how history is recorded and sometimes repurposed, even decades later.” —The Washington Post
“This is one of the best books written about the Shoah by Bullets. Clearly written, superbly researched, it’s a fascinating reminder of an unjustly neglected story about the Holocaust. Never pious or sentimental, the book twists and turns, asking all the complicated questions a fine history book should.” —David Herman, Chief Reviewer of The Jewish Chronicle
“Outstanding. . . . Heath recounts a series of devastating events that took place in the forests of Ponar, Lithuania in 1941. . . . Heath sifts through documents, diaries, and other personal testimonies to work through contradictions and discrepancies and reveal the truth. He argues that uncomfortable historical truths often remain buried because of a lack of honesty among the perpetrators, and he blames Lithuania for not owning up to its war crimes. With this book, the victims of Ponar are finally given the attention it deserves. . . This powerful book will enable the world to listen.” —Jewish Book Council
“Heath shines a light on subsequent efforts to erase the memory of those mass killings. . . . A detailed account of what happened in Ponar and how we remember it is an act of deep piety.” —Wall Street Journal
“No Road Leading Back is an unparalleled work of journalistic research with profound importance for the field of Holocaust studies, but even more so, it is a moving story of human endurance, perseverance, and hope — even when all hope seems lost.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
“Exhaustively researched. . . . Heath’s exploration of how the Holocaust has been memorialized—or weaponized, as in the former Soviet Union—feels particularly timely.” —The Smithsonian
“A stunning book, a powerful investigation, utterly compelling, at times stomach-churning and deeply shocking, but also by turns tragic, wistful and curiously uplifting. . . . There are timely questions here of the fragility of historical truth. Just as compelling, however, is the final part of the book and Heath’s own journey of investigation and discovery….This one will sit with me for long months to come.” —James Holland, The Telegraph
“This chillingly meticulous chronicle of a dozen escapees from a Nazi extermination camp underscores the mechanics of heroism and the fallibility of memory. . . . Heath painstakingly sifts through the conflicting accounts over the decades, analyzing discrepancies, details, and contradictions. Ultimately, he learned, just like the survivors, ‘of how great the distance could be between speaking out and being heard.’ Utterly absorbing in its powerfully detailed horror and inspiring redemption—a must-read in Holocaust studies.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In 1944, 80 men—nearly all Jewish—were held captive at a Nazi death camp in Ponar, Lithuania. Tasked with the gruesome work of systemically excavating, counting, and burning the buried remains of tens of thousands of victims and knowing they would be killed once their work was complete, they spent weeks secretly digging a tunnel. In the chaos of their escape attempt, a dozen evaded pursuit and survived. . . . Heath eschews simple narrative, letting each man’s story develop fully, allowing inconsistencies and gaps in the record to remain. This chronicle about escape and survival is also about lives and stories lost and the fragility of both personal and collective memory. What starts as a recounting of a single, heroic incident becomes much more.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Chris Heath artistically unravels the complex strands of testimony and memory surrounding the death pits at Ponar where the Jews of Vilna were murdered in cold blood beginning in 1941. . . . By juxtaposing the several points of view and recall in the postwar testimonies of the few Ponar survivors of this remarkable feat, as well as issues raised by local witnesses to the atrocities, Heath engages the reader in confronting crucial questions about Holocaust memory and memorialization of the tens of thousands of Jewish victims of the mass shootings at Ponar, as well as the challenges they pose to the writer. His probing queries and considerable artistry provide a new lens through which to explore the Holocaust on the Eastern front.” —Judges’ Remarks, National Jewish Book Awards
“A monumental act of reconstruction, this book helps restore historical specificity to an unfathomable reality.” —Jonathan Rosen, author of The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
“Chris Heath has finally given the horror of Ponar the sustained and concentrated attention it deserves. He has left no stone unturned in his effort to understand what happened in this terrible place, and to reinscribe its survivors’ stories back into historical memory. I was stunned by this book’s scope, rigor, and compassion. A monumental work of reportage and commemoration.” —Heather Clark, author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
“Chris Heath has chronicled one the bleakest, most disturbing events of the Holocaust. Previously little known, it’s the story of a dozen Jews who were among those ordered to exhume the mass graves at Ponar, where most of the Jewish population of Lithuania’s capitol, Vilna—‘the Jerusalem of the North’—had been lined up and shot by drunken units of Einsatzgruppen. Exhume and burn the bodies: that was the order. Because the criminals were hiding the evidence. ‘All roads lead to Ponar,’ poet and partisan Abba Kovner had said. ‘And Ponar means death.’ These prisoners, intensely alive in Heath’s crystalline prose, were sent to a hell deeper than the lowest circle of Dante, where they set about losing their minds and planning their escape. The stories of these men will unsettle and change you. Anyone who cares about human nature and the question of good and evil owes this author their admiration and gratitude.” —Rich Cohen, New York Times bestselling author of Tough Jews and The Avengers
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