It’s 1954 and a child is born in Soviet-occupied Lithuania. Joseph Stalin has died just a few months prior, leaving behind a legacy of brutality, starvation, and oppression throughout the Soviet Union. Born into a Jewish family, in Lithuania’s capitol city of Vilnius, this young boy will soon experience the disappointments and struggles of life under communism, simply because of his class and his religion.

This is the testimony of Boris Hoffman, a witness of communism from the Soviet Union, who was determined to succeed, defying the constraints of Soviet society and building for himself a future free from the obstacles and discrimination of his youth.