The book's title, The Lesser of Two Evils, describes the dilemma and ultimate fate of the two million Eastern European Jews following the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov pact of August, 1939, which divided the regions of eastern Poland, the Baltics, and, eastern Romania between Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. Because of the imminent geographical and political changes, the Jews in these areas had to calculate who was the "lesser of two evils" - the Soviets or the Nazis.

The book, originally published in Hebrew, is the culmination of 30 years of research by noted historian Dov Levin. It is the only study that deals comprehensively with the economic, social, religious, cultural, and political consequences of this overlooked episode in modern history. In order to obtain an authentic account, the author interviewed hundreds of witnesses and consulted thousands of original documents in 13 languages.

The book also portrays the everyday life of the Jewish communities at that time. The events that occurred during this significant period in Jewish history led directly to the destruction of the Jewish populations of these regions in the Holocaust.