Breaking Free
A Journey for Survival
by
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It was a gloomy rainy day certainly not one to go to the park and play. What to do with a seven year old I am babysitting. He is always restless. I promised his parents I would take him to the park but those plans must change. After all I am an old man not as spirited as I used to be. But I am not so old as to have forgotten my past. My dog is as old as I am, slightly blind and arthritic and just called dog. He is always by my side. He understands that I take it slow and easy. After all we are lucky to be alive. Heck, my grandson is lucky to be alive.
“Grandpa? Grandpa, are you awake? It is too wet go to the park. How about you tell me that story instead?”
Now that he is seven perhaps I can tell him the whole story. “What do you say boy (patting his dog), should I tell him the whole story?”
“Get us some cookies and milk and come sit on my lap “ I respond.
Properly situated, I ask,
“ Do you want to hear the one about the people having to leave their home, cross a mountain and go to a strange place.”
“Yes, Grandpa, that one!” replies the Grandson.
“I will start the story but if you get too frightened, you yell out and I will stop, understood!”
“Yes, Grandpa”.
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About the Book
It is 1938 and Adolf Hitler has just become the supreme leader of Germany. In Freiburg, a Jewish doctor learns that he, along with all other doctors of his faith, will be reassigned to practice in ghettos. Determined not to become victims of the Nazi occupation, Herschel and his wife, Sophia, hastily make plans to escape.
As their quest to survive begins, the couple journeys deep into the Black Forest to reach a guide who will help them cross the Swiss Alps to a refugee camp. But what Herschel does not know is that his wife is pregnant and that their journey will be even more challenging than he imagined. As they race against time, they are joined by an older couple and their granddaughter. Finally when the group arrives at the base of the mountains, they realize that their guide is not a man, but instead, man’s best friend. As another joins their expedition, now only one question remains: how many of them will make it over the mountain range before the German soldiers find them?
In this book based on true events, a Jewish doctor, his pregnant wife, and four others attempt to escape the Nazi occupation by embarking on a journey of salvation, with help from a prodigious, furry guide.
About the Author
Henry Radoff is a practicing attorney in Houston, Texas, who relied on survivor stories while teaching a Holocaust course at Congregation Emanu El for thirty years. He has co-authored a movie script entitled The Guide, a Holocaust story, and the book, Taking Chancey, penned about his own dog. Henry and his wife, Marla, divide their time between homes in Houston, Texas, and Pensacola, Florida.