When German occupiers ordered Jews in the Kovno ghetto to turn over all of their books in February 1942, some residents

When German occupiers ordered Jews in the Kovno ghetto to turn over all of their books in February 1942, some residents—including 13-year-old Solly Ganor—decided to resist.

"Nearly everyone ... began delivering their precious books to the assembly point. My mother had tears in her eyes as she helped me load her beloved books by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgeneyev [sic], and Pushkin onto my homemade sled," remembered Solly.

He never went to the assembly point. Instead, he and a friend hid the books in an abandoned house—and even began collecting additional books for their clandestine library. They allowed other children in the ghetto to exchange or borrow books.

Other residents buried books underground or smuggled them out of the ghetto in wagons. Some of these books were retrieved after the war.

Saving or hiding books was highly dangerous and punishable by death. However, Solly later wrote: "It was a risky business, but life wasn’t worth living without books."

Photo 1: Post-war portrait of Solly Ganor; USHMM, courtesy of Eric Saul

Photo 2: Children posing next to a wagon filled with Jewish-owned books during the "Books Aktion;" Yad Vashem, courtesy of Avraham Tori

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