The Endless Steppe
The Endless Steppe takes place in June 1942 when Russians arrest the Rudomin family. They are “capitalists – enemies of the people.” Russians force them from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland. They then herd the Rudomins into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.
For five years, Esther and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields and working in the mines, struggling for enough food and clothing to stay alive. Only the strength of family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.
Author Esther Rudomin Hautzig writes from her own personal experience. She tells her true story of riding a cattle car to Siberia with her family. She shares the hardships they endured there, and what they returned to after the war.
The author persists in the face of numerous terrible struggles, and rises above them all. The Endless Steppe tells a wonderful, inspirational story of Soviets imposing exile in Siberia, which saved the exiles from the Nazis but imposed on them a grueling life on the frozen steppe!
