I recently went on the Internet to find photos depicting refugees fleeing from the German invasion of
Belgium in May 1940. Looking through hundreds of pictures that came up, I noticed a photo of a truck transporting
refugees to a French village. In my book, One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child’s Journey through France, I write about
riding on such a truck with my family through Nazi bombardments along the coast lines of Belgium and France. Well,
the image turned out to be the truck as I recognized the two people sitting on the tailgate as my parents, Max, center,
and Nacha, right. Then I noticed my two brothers: Leo partially blocked by a woman’s raised arm on the left side,
front of truck; Sam, in front, right side and to the left of the word PAIX - meaning PEACE. The child with him is me.
For video produced by the Louisville Courier-Journal and used by Gannett TV news stations, please click http://www.9news.com/video/1762525830001/1/Holocaust-survivor-Fred-Gross-talks-about-finding-a-special-photo
Revisiting Corbin, KY., Middle School, November 2014
One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child’s Journey through France...
...is an adventure you will soon not forget...What makes this book come alive are the many conversations, colorful descriptions, and narrative talent. It could be a novel, but is true. This tale is worth telling, and here it is told particularly well...(from literary magazine Jewish Book World)
The books can be ordered at:
Mercer University Press, Barnes & Noble, Amazon,
and other booksellers in your community.
For Speaking Engagements, please e-mail fredgross1@mac.com or
call me at 502-767-9820. I’ve spoken to many schools and colleges, book
clubs, libraries, and various groups, organizations and associations. And I sign
books. I’ve been invited to sign my books numerous times at the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
This year’s eighth graders from St. Francis of Assisi in Louisville culminated the school’s annual study of the Holocaust visiting the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum on Veterans Day 2014. Teacher Fred Whittaker fascinated them with concise explanations of each of the nightmarish textual and visual exhibits. Above, I’m speaking to his students at the museum.
In Washington, I paid a visit to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I was eight years old when he died in April 1945, the war still raging in Europe. “The news of his death devastated me, and I feared that without Roosevelt the Nazis would win the war,” - from One Step Ahead of Hitler.