Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Boy's Quest for Freedom and His Future

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People who never asked for the plaudits or glory, they simply thought they were doing what was right. It was my first visit and I had no idea how idyllic it would look with ancient trees, flowers, momuments and the odd squirrel. Filled with great feats of endurance and extraordinary heroism, Escaping Hitler brings to life those who ran the escape routes and sheltered the escapees. After we had completed our usual book signing, Ilan and his wife Anne approached our table and Ilan spoke directly to Joe.Her publications include Los Poetas y El General: Voces de oposición en Chile bajo Augusto Pinochet, 1973–1989 / The Poets and the General: Chile's Voices of Dissent under Augusto Pinochet, 1973–1989 and Huyendo del Infierno Nazi: La inmigración judio-alemana hacia Chile en los años treinta.

The book is much more informative, the accounts from survivors and family although on times hard to hear are something that we should all hear least we forget.Anyone who openly criticised him or the Nazi party, they didn’t go to court or anything, they were political prisoners and locked up in the camps – these were not Jews, no Jewish people were making speeches against the Nazis. I found the book very easy to read in bite sized sections which started with quotes from Joe mostly, and others interviewed by the author. Joe Stirling’s life, from his childhood escape to Britain to life as a refugee in a strange country with a kindly family he had never met before; his education in unfamiliar schools and his ability to adapt to working as a professional in the politics of his adopted country; all have echoes with my own experience. During an emotional ‘foot-stepping’ journey in September 2013 the author visited Günter’s birthplace, met with a school friend, discovered the apartment in Koblenz where he fled following Kristallnacht in 1938, drove the route of Günter’s walk through Europe and retraced the final steps of his parents prior to their deportation to a Nazi death camp in Poland during 1942. Phyllida Scrivens deserves our thanks and applause for having captured this complex story sensitively and thoroughly.

Joe continues to keep a keen interest in how my writing and public speaking careers are progressing and is always proud to hear about it when I have share his life stories with new audiences in Norfolk. In the end the situation for those who remained behind was even more dramatic: because of all the formalities, the lack of international cooperation, and ultimately the war itself, many German Jews were not able to reach a safe place. Read all Allied prisoners used all kinds of forgery and engineering tactics to tunnel out of a German Prisoner of War camp. As the number of Jewish refugees increased, it became increasingly difficult for them to reach a safe country.The story of Joe Stirling’s successful integration into British life says a great deal for his determination, his resilience and his courage; the openness of his mind. During an emotional foot-stepping’ journey in September 2013, Scrivens also visited Günter’s birthplace, met with a school friend, discovered the apartment in Koblenz where he fled following Kristallnacht in 1938, drove the route of Günter’s walk through Europe, and retraced the final steps of his parents prior to their deportation to a Nazi death camp in Poland during 1942. AUTHOR: Phyllida Scrivens lives with husband Victor on the River Yare in Norwich England, with swans, geese and ducks for neighbours. Escaping Hitler is the true story, covering ninety years, of a fourteen-year-old boy Günter Stern who, when Adolf Hitler threatened his family, education and future, resolved to escape from his rural village of Nickenich in the German Rhineland.