Transforming Darkness into Light: A Holocaust Survivors Lessons in Fighting Hate
By (Author) Philip Lazowski
With Suzanne Batchelor Pinkes
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
5th March 2026
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Hardback
224
Width 152mm, Height 229mm
In 1941, when Philip Lazowski was 11 years old, his mother and two younger siblings were murdered by the Nazis, along with most of the Jews from his village in Poland. His mothers last words to him exhorted Phillip to be somebody because the world will need you. He survived two massacres and eventually was reunited with his father and one brother. Together the three of them spent the rest of World War II hiding from the Nazis in the dense woods of Poland, occasionally attaching themselves to groups of partisans. Rabbi Lazowski has spent a lifetime living up to his mothers last words.
Now, at the age of 94, Rabbi Lazowski has experienced both the worst and the best that the world has to offer. He has lived his life as a spiritual leader, peacemaker, educator, community builder and an outspoken and ardent fighter against antisemitism and all forms of hate. Witnessing the worldwide surge in antisemitism over the past 8 years, especially since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on civilians in Israel, Rabbi Lazowski has been inspired to write this last and most important book of his life, Transforming Darkness into Light: Lessons from a Holocaust Survivor from a Lifetime of Fighting Antisemitism.
Rabbi Lazowski is Rabbi emeritus of Beth Hillel Synagogue of Bloomfield, Connecticut and of The Emanuel Synagogue of West Hartford, Connecticut. He was born in Bielica, Poland in 1930 and survived the Holocaust, along with his father and one brother. His mother and two younger siblings, along with many friends and relatives, were murdered by the Nazis. He spent three years living in the forests of Poland in family groups attached to resistance fighters. He has written over a dozen books, including his story of surviving the Holocaust, Faith & Destiny.