Escape to Freedom

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Synopsis
As a ten-year-old child, Leon Rubinstein fled Germany with his parents in 1933, to Luxembourg and then Belgium, which they fled again on the morning of the Nazi invasion. They dwelt quietly as refugees in the south of France until the Vichy government began its roundup of foreign Jews for deportation. After his father's arrest, Leon endeavors to save himself and his mother with a daring journey to the border towns of southeastern France. Disguising their identities, they hitch a ride with German officers. Along the way, courageous French men and women, including a priest, help them cross the Alps into neutral Switzerland. This memoir gives a rare look at the lives of Jewish refugees in Switzerland-the Swiss work camps where Rubinstein toils along with other male refugees; his stint as a teacher at a home for orphaned Jewish children; his rescue by the Red Cross with a scholarship that enables him to complete his education. He also encounters his first great love at the University of Basel, the beautiful Vera, a child of parents lost in the Holocaust. Vera is a passionate Zionist who is determined to make her way to Palestine in the last months of the British mandate. Throughout this deeply felt story is Rubinstein's awareness of his transformation from adolescence to young manhood amid the catastrophic losses and disloca¬tions of the war years in Europe. His personal story resonates with anyone who remembers discovering love, as well as the necessity of choices and sacrifices. Leon Rubinstein studied at the University of Basel where he earned a teaching degree. After the war, he immigrated to the United States where he switched to the business world and had a successful career with a national company. For the past twenty years, he has written op-ed pieces for Florida newspapers and spoken to students throughout the Florida school system about the Holocaust and his own remarkable story of survival. He and his wife live in Jupiter, Florida.
Copyright:
2007

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
113 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780761836919
Publisher:
N/A
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Hamilton Books
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies
Submitted By:
Jamie Yates
Proofread By:
Liz Bottner
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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