V nebi je pusto - Objevování ztraceného města Trochenbrodu – Bendavid-Val Avrom (2021)

The town of Trochenbrod, known in Polish as Zofjówka, differed from most similar places in Eastern Europe only in that its inhabitants were, with few exceptions, Jews who spoke Yiddish. At that time, this unique Jewish town was growing and thriving in the midst of the forest of Volhynia. In September 1939, following the Soviet invasion of Poland, Zofjówka was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and renamed Sofievka. Two years later, Nazi Germany annexed it under the new Germanized name Trochenbrod. Its inhabitants were murdered, the houses were razed to the ground, and all remaining traces were removed after the return of Soviet power. Where streets, marketplaces, synagogues, parks, and cemeteries once stood, only grass remained. However, neither the Nazis nor the communists could destroy the spirit of the place, which continued to live on in stories and legends about a small piece of heaven hidden deep in the forest. Its immortality was further contributed to by the documentary prose of Avrom Bendavid-Val, "In Heaven It Is Empty" (2010). American economist Bendavid-Val, the son of one of the surviving residents of Trochenbrod, spent many years researching the history of the vanished town and gathering information about the life of his people, their customs, and culture. The result is a captivating portrait of the shtetl from its founding in the early 19th century.