The diary that is the focus of this book was written in secret, in the Jado concentration camp, which operated in Libya during the Second Elam War. Yosef Dedosh, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Benghazi, wrote every night with a pencil, on blotting paper, in violation of the orders of the Nazis. For over seven decades the treasured diary was hidden under piles of paperwork, documents and photographs. It took four more years to decipher the manuscript written in Italian, parts of which were absorbed into the pages, faded, and even completely disappeared under stains of grease and mold. The only diary written in the Jado camp and the historical research that followed it provide a rare opportunity to glimpse the hellish routine of Jado and events that were recorded in real time, starting with the removal of the Jews from their homes in Benghazi, through their transportation to the concentration camp, and ending with the entire period of detention in the camp. Yosef Dedosh's descriptions reveal images of horror, hunger, disease and death, but on the other hand they emphasize the uprightness of the Jewish stature and the determined stand of the Jado detainees in the face of the abuse, humiliation and danger of death that became their daily routine. In the process, a crossroads of life and death destinies was revealed, where Yosef Dedosh stood at it, when he refused the opportunity that came to him to escape from the shipping lists to Jado. He looked straight ahead and said: "Where all my Jewish brothers are going - I will go too."
