On page xiv of the preface to "Fugitives", Allan G. Levine states: "Despite the flaws..., the survivors' recollections' are at least (or more, I suggest) as valuable a historical source as any written Nazi or Soviet documents of the era... Oral history may be unreliable in some cases, but it is equally true that the passing of years can add a valuable perspective to traumatic events."

This truly surprising statement, coming from a self-professed historian, explains the spectacular shortcomings of Levine's book.

The treatment of the various occupations (Soviet, then German, then Soviet again) of northeastern Poland during the Second World War, in "Fugitives of the Forest" is seriously flawed. Not only does Levine not know Polish sources, but he also dismisses sight unseen readily accessible Soviet archival documents. This is an inexcusable omission given that the Jewish partisans were subservient to the Soviets.

Levine purges documents he cites that are prejudicial to his arguments. He does not acknowledge, for example, that there were Jews in political and administrative positions in the Soviet-occupied, eastern half of Poland, as well as ordinary civilians, collaborating with the Soviets in deporting one million Poles to the Gulag between 1939 and 1941. Jan Karski, the legendary Polish courier who was honoured by Israel for his efforts to warn the West about the Holocaust, reported that denunciations of Poles were "very frequent." Although Levine refers extensively to Karski's important report, there is no trace of this key passage.

Soviet wartime reports openly admit to treacherous assaults and massacres of Polish partisans in the latter half of 1943, in which Jewish partisans joined in, with predictable consequences. However, there is a deafening silence about such matters in his book, which relies exclusively on Jewish anecdotal literature.

Moreover, many of the survivors' stories, so uncritically accepted by Levine at face value, are so improbable that they border on the ridiculous. All in all, Levine's "Fugitives" has almost no scholarly value.

I have just read this remarkable story. While the author's arguments are slightly flawed and narrow in scope, He has recorded, for history, the many brave acts performed by a group of people who refused to just give up.