The Ticket Collector from Belarus book launch at Salisbury Museum

The Ticket Collector from Belarus tells the true story of two interwoven lives. Ben-Zion Blustein and Andrei Sawoniuk were childhood friends in 1930s Domachevo, which is now in Belarus. However, during the events that followed the Nazi invasion in 1941 they became enemies.

After the war Ben-Zion went to Israel while Andrei moved to England where he became a rail ticket collector in London.

More than half a century later their paths crossed at the Old Bailey when Sawoniuk went on trial for war crimes in 1999. Blustein was the principal witness for the prosecution.

For Mike Anderson, who lives near Salisbury, it is a relief to have released the book.

“It’s been a story I’ve wanted to tell for 14 years and I’ve been building up more and more information, stories, interviews, and it just feels rather wonderful.”

How the book evolved

Mike, who is a private banker in London, says he had always had an interest in the Holocaust and knew about it from an early age as his headmaster’s wife had been in a concentration camp. But it was the War Crimes Act of 1991, which enabled the 1999 trial to take place, that piqued his interest once again and started him on this path.

Some years before the trial he became friends with the junior counsel for the prosecution and adds: “I followed the trial and talked to him afterwards and ten years later we were having dinner and were talking about the trial and he said no-one had approached him and talked about it. I thought this is quite extraordinary.”

Uncovering a 'very human story'

Mike, who studied modern history at Sheffield University, says he initially thought that he would gather a story about the trial but while sifting through the documents he ended up uncovering the story of Blustein - the Jewish witness testifying against Sawoniuk.

“I then discovered that there is a very human story that lies underneath what actually happened in the court,” he explains.

“It is this uniquely British Holocaust story. It is a story of heroism, courage and justice. There is a lot to learn about it. People generally associate the Holocaust with concentration camps but that wasn’t what happened when the Germans invaded the east. What happened then is they intimidated and corralled the Jewish population into ghettos and slowly starved them then annihilated them.”

Finding the Blustein family

As part of his research Mike went to Israel to try and find the Blustein family. He was put in touch with his son as Ben-Zion had passed away. After a four hour lunch the family agreed to help Mike tell this story.

“I just feel extremely privileged to be able to tell the story,” admits Mike.

“Blustein was actually a hero, he managed to get out of Domachevo against all of the odds. He became a partisan and was recognised as being an extraordinary and courageous man. He liberated a concentration camp and was there in Berlin in the liberation of Berlin. He is this extraordinary person. What he really wanted to achieve was justice - not just justice for himself, his family and local community but for all those millions of voices who couldn’t tell their story.”

Interviews were carried out with barristers, solicitors, academics, journalists, police and even somebody who had worked with Sawoniuk at London Bridge station.

Moments of luck

Mike says he has felt “incredibly lucky” as this project came together with the “number of extraordinary things” that happened.

When he went in search of the Blustein family one person he had emailed told him it was their last day as they were due to retire so if he had emailed a day later he would not have heard anything more. While another person he contacted luckily checked an old email address which they never really look at.

He ended up discovering another story about what happened in Domachevo when getting a document translated from Yiddish.

“All these kind of things kept on happening.”

Another of those lucky moments was being able to find the family of the judge involved in the case. While on his way to work Mike “stumbled across” the wife’s name on the wall by the doorbell and wrote to her.

Bringing the book fruition

Despite the book being 14-years in the making, Mike says he only decided to write the book around two years ago and was encouraged by a friend.

Subsequently, he was introduced to an agent and then co-writer Neil Hanson - who collaborated with Mike to bring the book to fruition.

Not commuting during lockdown gave Mike the extra time he needed to focus on the project and work with Neil. And walking around the Cranborne Chase also gave him valuable thinking time.

“I almost feel like this has happened to somebody else. It is something I hadn’t intended to do but the thing that has been encouraging really is I’ve been flabbergasted by the reviews for the book,” says Mike, who admits he has “thoughts”about doing another book.

On what he’s enjoyed most, he says: “It’s those lucky moments, those are the bits that suddenly transformed it.”

“I never expected to be a writer. For me I wouldn’t have written it if I hadn’t felt it was something people will benefit from reading,” he adds.

“It is such an important story to be told. It is not only about learning from history but its also about a warning to the future.”

A special launch event was held at The Salisbury Museum on Friday January 21.

The book, published by Simon and Schuster, is now available to buy.