Transforming Darkness into Light: A Holocaust Survivor’s Lessons in Fighting Hate

In 1941, when Philip Lazowski was 11 years old, his mother and two younger siblings were murdered by the Nazis, along with most of the Jews from his village in Poland. His mother’s last words to him exhorted Phillip to “be somebody” because “the world will need you.” He survived two massacres and eventually was reunited with his father and one brother. Together the three of them spent the rest of World War II hiding from the Nazis in the dense woods of Poland, occasionally attaching themselves to groups of partisans. Rabbi Lazowski has spent a lifetime living up to his mother’s last words. Now, at the age of 94, Rabbi Lazowski has experienced both the worst and the best that the world has to offer. He has lived his life as a spiritual leader, peacemaker, educator, community builder and an outspoken and ardent fighter against antisemitism and all forms of hate. Witnessing the worldwide surge in antisemitism over the past 8 years, especially since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on civilians in Israel, Rabbi Lazowski has been inspired to write this last and most important book of his life.