Alan Silver

2025 | 213pp colour paperback | ISBN: 978‐1‐914002‐62‐5

The luck that saved him.

The strength that defined him.

Every Holocaust survivor has at least one story of good luck, but Tony’s survival required the bravery to keep taking one dangerous risk after another. Aged just 17, he had already endured six months of being starved and brutalized in a Nazi slave labour camp, ending with his first bold escape. Sadly, the outside world he escaped to in 1942 was full of dangers for a Jew and the war was far from over.

Now on the run alone, using false Polish Catholic papers, Tony’s real identity was found out. He reacted by making a desperate, high stakes move. He volunteered to work for the German army, hiding right under his enemy's nose for ten terrifying months.

To join he had to overcome two major obstacles. The medical would reveal his religion and if he survived that he had to bluff his way as an electrician, the job the Nazis had recruited him for after believing his false papers.

When, at last a chance came to desert, he took it. That risk was soon followed by a punishing, final flight towards freedom which demanded extreme mental and physical endurance. Now he battled against the forces of nature in deepest winter. His strength carried him to safety, at last free to choose his own path.

This is the gripping, true account of a teenager who refused to be a victim, masterminding four incredible escapes from those who wished him dead simply for having been born a Jew. Tony’s story is a harrowing testament to human grit, set against the background tragedy of the murders of almost all his family and friends.