ONE STEP AHEAD: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe

In this straightforward, often riveting memoir, Feldman recounts the harrowing years of his youth and young adulthood, which he spent eluding the Nazis. Born in Hamburg and raised by modern Orthodox parents as "a good little German," Feldman was effectively shielded from anti-Semitism, even as Jewish businesses were being boycotted and books by Jewish authors were being burned. His father's business transplanted the family to Antwerp; when the Germans invaded Belgium, Feldman's life as a fugitive began. Through strength, courage and remarkable luck, Feldman and his father managed to escape the horrific fate that awaited his mother and sisters as well as millions of others. Amid the hardship of their flight, acts of kindness stand out: the banker in Nice who chartered four ships to transport Jewish refugees to liberated North Africa; the peasants who risked their lives to provide food and shelter to Feldman and his father. While Feldman's spirit and hope survived, his faith did not. Some years after returning to Antwerp, Feldman ate a grape on the holy fast day of Yom Kippur; when he wasn't struck dead, he abandoned religion. Emigrating to America years later, he left behind the prayer shawl he was to be buried in—the one that accompanied him throughout his years as a fugitive. Escape is the memoir's leitmotif, and Feldman, as both survivor and refugee from the holocaust, gives that theme a quiet power. Photos and maps. (Nov. 11)