In the Lion's Den

Few lives shed more light on the complex relationship between Jews and Christians during and after the Holocaust that that of teenage Polish Jew, Oswald Rufeisen.

Fluent in German, Rufeisen became a translator for the Nazi gendamerie, using his position to pass secret information about impending `aktions'. When denounced, he was smuggled into a Carmelite convent by his sympathetic German commander, and later fought as a Soviet partisan. He converted to Catholicism and became a priest, but the now Father Daniel still insisted on the automatic Israeli citizenship granted to Jews, and fought for his right throughout the 1960s.

This stirring biography also reflects the intricate connections between good and evil, cruelty and compassion, and tolerance and prejudice in this critical era of Jewish history.