By Eliezer Naness
Excerpted from his book Subota, which details his experiences in a Russian labor camp where he was imprisoned for nearly two decades.
An aide informed me that my wife had sent a package containing warm clothing, a hundred ... there can be the possibility of discussing transferring you, and maybe your friend too, to another camp.
I thanked him for his advice and good intentions, and asked him to give me the matzot ...
In the evening, when all the prisoners went to eat, Shmuel and I prayed the Passover evening service ...
I thought of my family, sitting in their houses alone, and that they were surely shedding tears over my condition ...
Just as the Jews could not escape from Egypt, so too, the Jews from Russia ...
We prayed that G-d would redeem us ...
The next day, the camp authorities were already aware that I had not appeared for work ...
But I was determined to keep the mitzvah ...
Dedicated to the Rebbe on the occasion of his 123rd birthday whose teachings and example are a never-ending source of life for all mankind. May we continue in his path and complete the mission with which he has charged us: to make the world conscious of the imminent Redemption and to prepare the environment where this ideal can be realized.
In 1965, ten years after he was released, Eliezer Naness and his wife were reunited in Israel.
