
Against All Odds
Story of Kurt Pick
Jennifer Henderson(Author)
Radcliffe Press
Published on 31. December 1998
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-86064-252-4 (ISBN)
Description
This story of survival against all odds tells what befell Kurt Pick, an Austrian Jew, after he left his Vienna home and fled the Nazi persecution of his race. He was captured whilst attempting to walk across the German border into Belgium, but escaped and succeeded in being smuggled into Brussels, where he existed in constant fear, freezing cold and near starvation. In the summer of 1939 he was appointed Administrator of a camp for Jewish refugee families at Marneffe, near Brussels, becoming their official link with the outside world. When Germany invaded Belgium, the 600 residents were evacuated and joined the immense tide of refugees clogging the roads. Pick survived the air attacks and reached Avesnes, where he was mistaken for a spy, almost shot, and then nearly lynched by civilians. With the Germans now in occupation, he walked 100 miles back to Brussels. In 1942 he left to become a baker at a boarding school which he found was sheltering many Jews and was being used as a centre for the Resistance. When the Germans raided the school, he bluffed his way out and escaped to Liege.
From that point Pick was permanently on the run until the Americans liberated Liege in September 1944. He survived, but was to discover that most of his family had perished.
From that point Pick was permanently on the run until the Americans liberated Liege in September 1944. He survived, but was to discover that most of his family had perished.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
Illustrations, 1 map, ports.
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
418 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-86064-252-4 (9781860642524)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jennifer Henderson is the author of a novel for teenagers, The Snowman (1977), and she co-wrote Our God has No Favourites (1989) with Anne Primavesi.
Content
Part 1 Brussels: December 1938; December 1938-June 1939. Part 2 Marneffe and Brussels: June 1939-May 1940; May-June 1940; June 1940-July 1942. Part 3 Bassines and Liege: July 1942-October 1943; October 1943-September 1944.