Leap into Darkness: Seven Years on the Run in Wartime Europe

Author: Leo Bretholz

Author: Michael Olesker

Young Leo Bretholz survived the Holocaust by escaping from the Nazis (and others) not once, but seven times during his almost seven-year ordeal crisscrossing war-torn Europe. He leaped from trains, outran police, and hid in attics, cellars, or anywhere that offered a few more seconds of safety. First, he swam the River Sauer at the German-Belgian border. Later, he climbed the Alps on feet so battered they froze to his socks—only to be turned back at the Swiss border. He crawled out from under the barbed wire of a French holding camp and hid in a village in the Pyrenees while gendarmes searched it. And in the dark hours of one November morning, he escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz.

Paperback

288 Pages