Overview

The story of a young boy who escaped Hitler and the Holocaust--and lived happily ever after. Escaping Hitler is the true story, covering ninety years, of Gunter Stern who, at fourteen, when Adolf Hitler threatened his family, education, and future, resolved to escape from his rural village of Nickenich in the German Rhineland. In July 1939, Gunter boarded a bus to the border of Luxembourg, illegally crossed the river, and walked alone for seven days through Belgium and into Holland. He was intent on catching a ferry to England and freedom, but the outcome of his journey was not exactly as he had planned. Scrivens gathered her information through interviews with Gunter, now known as Joe Stirling, and with those closest to him. During an emotional 'foot-stepping' journey in September 2013, Scrivens also visited Gunter's birthplace, met with a school friend, discovered the apartment in Koblenz where he fled following Kristallnacht in 1938, drove the route of Gunter'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. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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9781510708655

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Reviews

Deep research and deft storytelling recount the flight of a Jewish teenager from Nazi Germany, orphaned by the murder of his parents in the Sobibor death camp, and capped by his grit and meritorious rise to the top of British civic life and the Lions Club. A role model for generations to come. Anthony S. Pitch, author, <i>Our Crime Was Being Jewish</i> The brave plight of a young German Jewish refugee. Stirling s story is an inspiring example of a valiant professional life fashioned out of loss and tragedy. <i>Kirkus Reviews</i>

Author Information

Phyllida Scrivens lives with her husband, Victor, on the River Yare in Norwich, England, with swans, geese, and ducks for neighbors. Since ten years old she has loved to write. Her successes include articles for magazines, short stories, monologues and one-act plays. At the age of sixty she fulfilled a long-term ambition when awarded a masters in biography and creative nonfiction from the University of East Anglia. But it was a weekly biographical interview feature, Meeting People, published during the nineties that unwittingly prepared her for this debut full-length biography.

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