American expatriate professor who has lived for years in Siena, Italy. As the book opens, Jastrow, his niece Natalie, and Natalie's son Louis are aboard a steamer in Naples, waiting to attempt the illegal and perilous sea voyage to Palestine. Then Jastrow meets a former student, Werner Beck, now in the German diplomatic corps. Beck offers them his protection, and they leave the ship to return to Jastrow's Siena villa, where it appears safe, although the Italian government refuses to give them visas, while making paper-thin excuses. Beck initially pretends sympathy and friendliness, so he can solicit Jastrow in broadcasting Axis propaganda. After Jastrow refuses, Beck makes veiled threats, so Jastrow, Natalie and Louis escape to Elba, then Corsica, and finally to Marseille, in Vichy France. After the Allied landings in Africa in November 1942, Germany occupies Vichy and closes the borders. Natalie, Louis and other trapped Americans are sent by the Vichy government first to Lourdes and then to Baden-Baden, Germany, to be part of a diplomatic exchange. Aaron falls ill and he and Natalie and Louis are transferred to Paris, where Jastrow is treated at the American Hospital. Beck reappears in Paris, again threateningly requesting that Jastrow make the propaganda broadcasts. Jastrow, Natalie and Louis attempt to flee back to Baden-Baden, but the Germans stop them and the three are soon after sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. Adolf Eichmann has Jastrow savagely beaten after he refuses to join the so-called "Council of Elders". Jastrow acquiesces and takes a major role in the beautification, a Potemkin village to convince the Danish Red Cross that conditions are excellent in the "Paradise Camp." When his usefulness is ended, he is sent to Auschwitz. The Council members thought that as "prominents" they would be spared, but all were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Jastrow's body is cremated with millions of other Jews, but despite the degradation of his body, his soul was rekindled with what it means to be a Jew. He leaves behind a diary, A Jew's Journey, which is quoted throughout the book. Berel Jastrow — Berel, Aaron's cousin, is captured with the Red Army in 1941 and sent to Auschwitz as a prisoner of war. He is transferred to a work kommando led by a Jew named Sammy Mutterperl, and the two participate in the construction of the Birkenau section of Auschwitz. Mutterperl himself is planning