Set against the backdrop of World War II, Youth Enchained takes the reader on the amazing journey of holocaust survivor, Joseph Halperin. At just 17 years old, Joseph avoids the consequences of the German invasion of Poland by escaping to Belarus (recently occupied by the Soviet Union). There he works as a teacher in a small village and gains the trust and love of the peasants, but after the Germans advance to the USSR, he is forced to move into a bigger city where he witnesses the liquidation of his people. With an iron will to survive, Joseph recounts his later wartime years as an estate manager, an undercover translator in a German “Forest Guard” unit, and finally as a partisan in the Polish underground. When the war ends, Joseph organizes and leads a group of Jewish war orphans in a six months long journey to their promised land, but his Odyssey continues there when he is seriously wounded during the Israeli War of Independence. The story of Joseph’s road back to recovery is one of sheer strength and determination as he studies to become an educator and later, a scholar, thereby putting his traumatic wartime experiences to positive use. While Joseph’s shocking ordeal would shake anyone’s faith, his account serves to inspire. He acknowledges the many people - of all nationalities  -  who helped him survive, and reaffirms his belief in the basic good in mankind. Decades later, Dr. Joseph Halperin returns to Belarus, Poland and Germany, revisiting his roots and bringing his epic journey full circle.