One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France

One Step Ahead of Hitler is a movingly reconstructed memoir of a time, beginning in May 1940, when the author (age three and a half) and his family first flee the German Army's approach to Antwerp, Belgium (where the family had fled from Germany in 1924 to escape Nazi thugs). With the help of his mother and siblings many years after the War, author Fred Gross fills in the parts he could not hope to remember at such an early age (although by the time WWII ends, Gross, almost 9, is better able to recall his own personal history). This approach is not with pain--Gross' mother, Nacha, and brothers Leo and Sam, often would just as soon forget such painful memories (Fred recalls that his mother "didn't like to remember some things"). But Fred's persistence allows him to detail his family's perilous voyage across France--what Gross calls "our six-year journey dodging the Nazis"---and to find out many other facets of his family's history that he never knew.And a perilous journey it is. Gross has chosen his title well. For over two years his family never really 'escapes' from the Germans, that is, crosses over to safety in England or America or some other place out of harm's way. Instead, the family, in a verve-wracking game of cat and mouse, just manages to stay "one step ahead" of the ever advancing Germans and their minions. There are plenty of close calls. Traveling in a refugee caravan at the start of the War, the family is repeatedly strafed. [One of Gross' most vivid early memories is being tossed into a ditch and protectively smothered by his mother.] The family flees to Paris, then Bordeaux, hoping to escape into Portugal via Spain, only to find the border closely guarded. Their life on the run comes to a seeming end when Gross' family is rounded up by the Vichy French and herded into a concentration camp in the foothills of the Pyrenees. In a not untypical episode of pluck, luck and daring, the author's teenage brother Sam simply walks out of the camp one day (of course the escape was based on a close observation of the guards' habits), locates a nearby cousin, secures a camp pass, and returns to free the entire family. [Many of the camp's inhabitants were not so lucky, and were later shipped off to death camps in the East.] Now free again, the family continues to migrate further east (victims of anti-Jewish sentiment that blames them for France's defeat), first to Toulouse, then Marseilles, and finally Nice (which is administered by the victorious, and slightly more tolerant, Italians). There they coexist, living a precarious existence under the watchful eye of the local police. Indeed, when the Vichy government finally makes its move and commences a roundup of the city's Jewish residents, the family has only just enough advance warning to make yet another narrow escape.By late 1942 the family's prospects have grown increasingly grim, as the Vichy government tightens its grip, and refuge becomes ever more difficult to find. The family decides that it has only one option left--to make a dash for the safe haven of Switzerland, beyond the grasp of the Nazis once and for all. They narrowly evade the French police at the border, only to be confronted with a final, potentially fatal, obstacle---by order of the Swiss Government, to stay within the country one must have a relative already living there (those who have no such relations are brutally turned back). In one of those ironic twists of fate of which WWII abounds, the author's mother, Nacha, had been abandoned to an orphanage by her own mother during WWI while living in Leipzig, Poland (a fact Gross learns only after his mother has died, so painful was this secret). Gross' widowed grandmother had re-married and chose to return with her new husband--alone (he wanted nothing to do with his 13 yr. old stepdaughter) to the land of his birth---Switzerland. Thus, Nacha's mother, the very person who had abandoned her to her fate as a teenager in WWI, becomes the unwitting source of her and her family's deliverance in WWII.Although the family faces further trials and tribulations, including lengthy separation, while in Switzerland, at least they are beyond physical harm until the War is over and they are able to establish a new life in America.As Elie Weisel once remarked: "Each [Holocaust] story retains its own identity, its own voice." One Step Ahead of Hitler is another story of a refugee family fleeing from the War's vicissitudes. As related by Fred Gross, it is a story of chance, courage, good fortune, narrow escapes, and a family's desire to survive and endure together against all odds. Gross has done a masterful job of illuminating the story of just one family that was able to escape Hitler's clutches. We readers are the better for the telling. A gripping story.

Imagine being separated from your family during wartime, herded with other children and adults you don't know, and marched through Europe to escape from Nazi Germany during a major World War with the fear, stress and proximity to danger that came with the territory. This very well-written memoir from a child's pov under such serious and frightening circumstances takes on new importance, as its author passed away in December 2021. His determination to set down his experience is a treasure for the rest of us and should be a reminder that such an aberration must never happen again.

Book was recommended by a friend -- I was lucky to find it at a reasonable price, excellent shape and fast shipment

This tale enthralls from the first page and captivates until the last! Fred Gross is a beautiful writer and his talent for weaving living, breathing images with his words is enviable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book--devoured is maybe a more appropriate word--and then had the great honor to meet Mr. Gross at one of his lectures. This is a beautiful and terrible tale of one of the darkest times in world history. A tale of survivorship, it shares the heart-wrenching journey of one Jewish family on the run for years, with the Nazis on their heels. I am so grateful to Mr. Gross for adding this important testimony to the collection of Holocaust survivor histories. Furthermore, Mr. Gross did his research well and I learned things about the situation in Europe during WWII that I never knew. Lastly, I feel that it is important to note that this book transcends the genre of Holocaust Literature in that it is a fascinating read for anyone simply looking to hear a good story, not just those of us with an interest in Hitler's murderous scheme to eradicate the Jews. Thank you for enriching the world with your gift, Mr. Gross.

One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France begins with the author's recollections as a small boy. When his memory develops, so does his perception of the horrors visited upon his Jewish family. Fred Gross builds upon recall and supplements his account with research and interviews with his mother, brothers, friends and other relatives to get an accurate viewpoint of events that followed the German invasion of his native Belgium in 1940. The story is recounted earnestly, with the author's insights of family motivations and emotional conclusions. Throughout the book there is an unquenchable spirit manifest along with a love of humanity that was never destroyed. Fred Gross is a most remarkable man and explains an historical atrocity that must never be forgotten.

Wow! An amazing (and heartbreaking) story, the book is extremely well written. All the way through I kept thinking, and this is Mr. Gross's real life! These stories must be told before the last of the storytellers leave us for their eternal reward. WE MUST NEVER FORGET!

Very interesting and firsthand. Very well written.

Great autobiographical book telling the seldom told story about the Jewish people's struggle in and around France during WW II. Beautifully written. Interesting read. Thanks.