BENEATH THE LIGHTLESS SKY:

Surviving the Holocaust in the Sewers of Lvov

A Memoir Unearthed from the Depths By Ignacy Chiger

With a Foreword by Doron Keren, grandson of Ignacy Chiger

This event is co-presented by Chabad of Port Washington, The Community Synagogue and Book RePort

Ignacy Chiger’s remarkable memoir, Beneath the Lightless Sky, originally published in Poland in 2011 is now being published for the first time in English. This long lost translation, unearthed by Chiger’s grandson, Doron Keren, opens the door for a global audience to encounter a voice nearly silenced by history.

More than a gripping personal narrative, the memoir offers a rare unflinching dual portrait of the two totalitarian regimes that engulfed Eastern Poland: Soviet rule followed by Nazi terror. Before Chiger’s family ever descended into the fetid sewers beneath Lvov to evade the liquidation of the ghetto, they endured the suffocating, often invisible violence of Soviet domination, a period too often overshadowed in Holocaust literature.

Please join us for a special Conversations from Main Street event, revisiting and expanding the story first shared in Port Washington in 2009 with The Girl in the Green Sweater, co-authored by, Krystyna Chiger, aka Kristine Keren, and acclaimed writer, Daniel Paisner.

Kristine, the girl in the green sweater, together with her family and a small group of Jews, survived beneath the streets of Lvov, Poland, for 14 months, with the help of an unlikely savior - a Polish Catholic sewer worker named Leopold Socha.

On Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 7:00 PM, we will host a public conversation centered on two deeply connected Holocaust memoirs:

• Beneath the Lightless Sky, by Ignacy Chiger

• The Girl in the Green Sweater, by Krystyna Chiger and Daniel Paisner

Panel Participants

• Doron Keren – Grandson of Ignacy Chiger, author of Beneath the Lightless Sky; son of Krystyna Chiger (Kristine Keren), co-author of The Girl in the Green Sweater

• Dan Paisner – Co-author of The Girl in the Green Sweater

• Moderator: Dana Arschin – Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center Storyteller and Emmy Award–winning journalist

Biographies of our panelists:

Doron Keren, DDS 

 Dr. Doron Keren, a 1987 graduate of Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, had a successful career as a dentist for over 30 years. Doron, now retired from dentistry, is pursuing his passion project of producing a TV series based on the memoir of Doron’s grandfather, Ignacy Chiger - Beneath the Lightless Sky, and his mother’s book, The Girl in the Green Sweater, by Krystyna Chiger, aka, Kristine Keren – the inspiration behind the 2012 academy award nominee for best foreign language film, In Darkness, directed by Agnieszka Holland. Beneath The Lightless Sky will be published January 27th, 2026, by Amsterdam Publishers. 

Keren’s foreword calls his grandfather “a real-life superhero,” a man who outwitted his interrogators, evaded deportation, and preserved a small community underground with only the faintest flicker of light.  

As a Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor – a 2G – a living link to the past, Doron is committed to sharing his family’s remarkable survival stories, educating future generations and inspiring young minds, emphasizing that Never Again is Not Just Now – Never Again Is Always.  

Doron can be contacted at: 

dkerendds@gmail.com  

tel. 516.316.9821 

@beneaththelightlesssky 

www.yellowdarkness.com 

https://vimeo.com/901387302/8df9e91a43 

DANIEL PAISNER is well-known to publishers (and, alas, somewhat less well-known to readers) as the author or co-author of more than 80 books. As a ghostwriter, he has written more than 70 books in collaboration with athletes, actors, politicians, business leaders and ordinary individuals with extraordinary stories to tell. He is co-author of the acclaimed Holocaust memoir “The Girl in the Green Sweater,” written with Krystyna Chiger, and the gripping 9/11 diary “Last Man Down,” with FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Picciotto – both international best-sellers.

In a New York magazine article on ghostwriting, Paisner was called "the world's most prolific living ghost," which may or may not have been meant as a compliment. His collaborative work has also been highlighted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN: The Magazine and on C-SPAN, Freakonomics Radio and NPR.

In all, seventeen of his collaborations have reached the New York Times best-seller list—including "Rise and Grind," an inspirational primer from Shark Tank panelist and serial entrepreneur Daymond John. The book, also a #1 Wall Street Journal best-selling business title, is a follow-up to John's "The Power of Broke," winner of a 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Instructional).

Recent collaborations include a motivational memoir with two-time Olympic snowboardcross champion Lindsey Jacobellis; a collection of inspirational profiles of individuals doing good works in their communities with the support of their local churches, synagogues and mosques, written with former Ohio governor John Kasich; a primer on what it takes to succeed in life (and reality television), with producer Arthur Smith; and a reflection on life at the cutting edges of music and moment, with pioneering EDM deejay Steve Aoki.

He is the host of the podcast “AS TOLD TO: The Ghostwriting Podcast,” a production of the Writer’s Bone Podcast Network, which features conversations with his fellow ghostwriters, as well as songwriters, speechwriters, screenwriters and other artists who work in service of someone else’s voice. Recent guests have included actor and songwriter Jeff Daniels; award-winning biographer and baseball journalist Jane Leavy; best-selling novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro; television writer and ”Wicked” dramatist and screenwriter Winnie Holzman; and legendary record producer Peter Asher.

On his own, Paisner is the author of four novels: “Balloon Dog” (“… darkly funny and painfully true…” – Laura Zigman, NYT best-selling novelist); "A Single Happened Thing" ("... poignant and whimsical..." - The Millions); “Mourning Wood” (“… has the makings of a cult favorite…” – Booklist, starred review); and “Obit” (“… a classic mystery novel…” – The Boston Globe). He is also the author of “Show: The Making and Unmaking of a Television Pilot,” recently re-issued with a new introduction by the author; and “The Ball: Mark McGwire’s 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream,” hailed by ESPN.com as “one of the great quirky masterpieces of baseball journalism.”

Twitter: @DanielPaisner Threads: @danpaisner BlueSky: @danielpaisner.bsky.social website: www.danielpaisner.com podcast: www.astoldtopodcast.com

Dana Arschin is a 3X Emmy Award-Winning journalist and the first-ever Storyteller for the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC). Prior to her role with the museum, she spent six years working as an on-air general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor for Fox 5 News, covering the New York/Tri-state area.  Dana is also the proud granddaughter of an Auschwitz Concentration Camp survivor, her "Poppy." Poppy passed away in December 2023 at 101 years old. In 2018, Dana traveled to Poland to learn more about her ancestors murdered in the Holocaust. She shot, wrote and produced three short films on her journey for Fox 5. She won her second NY Emmy award for one of those films, entitled The Forgotten Camps. She previously reported for News 12 The Bronx/Brooklyn, where she shot, wrote and edited all of her stories. During her tenure at News 12, Dana won her first NY Emmy Award for her reporting on the city's cleanup efforts in Brooklyn during the 2014 snowstorms. She also won first place two years in a row at the NY Press Club Awards for her reporting in Brooklyn. She won her third NY Emmy in October 2023 for her reporting in a Fox 5 special called "Tower of Heroes."
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Dana grew up on Long Island, where she discovered her passion for journalism at a young age. She made her broadcasting debut in the fifth grade, reporting for her elementary school's first-ever news station, Jackson Broadcasting Kids.

Dana graduated Cum Laude from the University of Delaware with a double major in Spanish Studies and Communication. She also earned a Master's Degree with honors in Broadcast Journalism from the New York Institute of Technology. She is fluent in Spanish, conversant in Portuguese and a beginner in Mandarin.

During her free time you can find Dana on the flying trapeze, playing on volleyball and softball leagues, and spending time with her husband and two young daughters.