Two young men. One single gunshot. A daring escape across the border.

Lithuania, 1941. The heavy wooden doors slam shut as Frieda steps inside the local synagogue, where her community is ordered to gather by the pro-Nazi Lithuanian army. With her husband and their daughter Lena, Frieda still believes no harm will come to them or her two bright sons studying, safe and sound, in Paris.

Then the shots rang.

Hundreds of miles away, Yehezkel and his brother Leon are crossing the French countryside. Completely unaware of the horrors enveloping their country and the rest of Europe, they flee south toward the safe harbors of Spain, where they hope to wait out the war. Isolated from their family, the brothers face the dangers of war-torn Europe with only their ingenuity to keep them safe, as they long for the day they can finally reunite with their family.

Based on a heart-wrenching true story, The Silence After the Storm is a touching ode of yearning to those whose lives were cut short by the horrors of the Holocaust. With her artistic writing style, Aliza Florenthal recreates the colorful lives – and red silence – left in the aftermath of the raging storm of World War II.