even in the camps, where five issues were circulated, handwritten by the editor Shlomo Frankel, prior to liberation. The Sons of Zion also built bunkers where food and water were stockpiled. On July 8, 1944, it was decided to evacuate all residents of the ghetto. Zev and his family tried to avoid evacuation by hiding in a bunker. For five days they succeeded, but on July 13, the Germans found them. Together with another 300 Jews who had remained in the ghetto, they were marched to the railroad station. On the way, there a selection, and Feiga Birger, Zev's mother, was sent to the left with the elderly and sick. That was the last time he saw her. Zev, his brother Mordecai and his father were loaded onto a freight train headed for Germany. Zev later said that he and his brother had several opportunities to jump from the car but they did not want to leave their father. The Birgers were taken to Stutthof, and transferred to Dachau only a few days later. From there, they were taken to Kaufering IV, where they were forced to work in an underground German munitions factory that produced airplanes. Within a short time Zev remained alone, after his father died in his arms, of a serious infection, and his brother was sent to another work camp, where he died. Zev was transferred to Kaufering V and then to Kaufering VII, which were even worse. Throughout it all, he repeated to himself: "You will survive. This will be our revenge." On April 27, 1945, the camp was liberated by American soldiers and Zev was transferred to the hospital in Bad Woerishofen. His physical condition was very poor, but the doctors were able to save his life and heal his abscess-covered body. The Americans identified his abilities, and Zev became their translator. They equipped him with a US army uniform and attached him to the unit. Although the unit's commander implored him to return with his soldiers to the United States and receive US citizenship, Zev was convinced that his place was in Israel, as part of the effort to build a state for the Jewish people, so that similar events would not occur again in the future. Zev parted from his American saviors, and went to Frankfurt where he joined the illegal immigration operation that brought Holocaust survivors to the Land of Israel.