One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe PDF
Preview One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe
ONE SIEP AHEAD This page intentionally left blank ONE STEP AHEAD Alfred Feldman With a Foreword by Susan Zuccotti Southern Illinois University Press Corbondale and Edwardsville Copyright © 2001 by Alfred Philip Fekiman All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 04 03 02 01 4 3 21 Publication partially funded by a subvention grant from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. The epigraph to chapter 13 is reprinted with permission from The Memoirs of Field- Marshal Kesselring, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, USA, The translation of the Kaddish in chapter 15 is reprinted with permission from Leon Wieseltier. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feldman, Alfred, 1923- One step ahead : a Jewish fugitive in Hitler's Europe / Alfred Feldman ; with a foreword by Susan Zuccotti. p. cm. 1. Feldman, Alfred, 1923— . 2. Jews—Germany—Cologne—Biog- raphy. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Germany—Cologne—Per- sonal narratives. 4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Italy—Personal narratives. 5. Refugees, Jewish—France—Biography. 6. Refugees, Jew- ish—Italy—Biography. 7. Cologne (Germany)—Biography. I. Title. DS135.G5F33 2001 943'.5514086'092—dc21 [B] ISBN 0-8093-2411 -3 (alk. paper) 2001020172 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For my wife This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Foreword xi Susan Zuccotti Acknowledgments xxiii 1. How We Arrived in Germany, and How We Left 1 2. The Halfway House 22 3. Practice Makes Perfect 43 4. A Crazy Summer 60 5. Time Turns Back 71 6. The Warmth of a Mother's Love 90 7. My Life as Somebody Else 102 8. A Biblical Migration 121 9. Vogelfrei 136 10. A Failed Rescue 145 11. The Cave of San Mauro 155 12. The Privilege to Be Shot as a Partisan 164 13. The Oldest Instinct 177 14. A Voyage of Discovery 199 15. Aftershocks 214 16. The Past Revisited 239 Chronology 253 Letters 277 Notes 315 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations Genealogy of the Feidman Family facing page 1 Maps 1. Belgium and its prewar border with Germany 19 2. May 18, 1940 (Saturday). The Feidman family leaves Coxyde for Bordeaux. 52 3. May 1940 to November 1942. Alfreds path from Antwerp to Le Puy en Velay. 55 4. November 11, 1942, to September 8, 1943. Alfreds path from Le Puy en Velay to Gorre. 117 5. September 1943 to May 1945. Alfreds path from St. Martin-Vesubie to Gorre. 128 Plates Following page 120 Alfred's father, Joachim Feidman; Alfred's mother, Paula; her mother, Scheindel Chaja Bauminger; and her husband, Isaac Bauminger. Hamburg, Germany, 1920s. Passport photo of Alfred's grandmother, Chinka Feidman. Co- logne, Germany, 1934. Aunt Betty Knoll and her son Simon. Cologne, Germany, 1935. Alfred's sisters Jenny and Hella, Alfred's cousin Ines Rosenbaum, and Alfreds sister Edith at the beach. Knokke, Belgium, summer 1938. ix
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