Echoing the voices of Primo Levi and Victor Frankl， Michael Skakun captures the visceral danger and suspense of man outwitting certain death. On Burning Ground is the harrowing story of Skakun s Jewish father who escapes the Nazis， paradoxically， by insinuating himself into the heart of the Waffen SS. On Burning Ground is a tour de force--a highly dramatic account of one man s improbable efforts to survive the Holocaust. Fleeing the slaughters in his Polish hometown of Novogrudek， Joseph Skakun assumed a series of false identities--first as a Christian， then as a Muslim， and finally as a recruit of the Nazi SS--in order to stay alive in most precarious of situations. Constantly fearing exposure and death， Skakun lived long enough to see the downfall of the most brutal horror of the modern age and finally to emigrate to America. In the safety of New York， he tells his tale of nerve， dissimulation， and hidden desperation to his son， who has brilliantly recounted the tension and anguish of his father s struggle. When the Nazis marched into Novogrudek in 1941， Joseph Skakun had been for nearly a decade a yeshiva student anchored in a world of piety. He witnessed the mass atrocities of the Einsatzgruppen， Hitler s mobile killing units: the roundup and murder of his mother， relatives， and thousands of his fellow townspeople. Realizing the end that awaited him， Joseph Skakun escaped， setting off on a perilous journey into the very heart of Nazi Germany. For three nerve-shattering years， Skakun lived under false names， with the ever-present threat of betrayal and execution. Weaving philosophical meditations into his father s horrific wartime story， Michael Skakun tells a personal， yet epic， account of war and bloodshed， of unspeakable cruelty and unnamable crimes. With remarkably penetrating insight， Skakun explores the nature of fear and identity， as well as the complicated relationship between the abuser and the abused. Reflecting on the conflicted nature of guilt and the irreparable damage wrought by direct conflict with human brutality in its most naked form， the story of Michael Skakun s father is nothing less than that of the legacy of post-Holocaust Jews and the attempt to claim the inheritance of suffering.