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.



























 

Photo of Fred Gross & Family Fleeing from Nazis

   

      Excerpt from David Gushee’s foreword to One Step Ahead of Hitler



“...As Fred Gross tells the story of his family’s desperate sojourn across southwestern Europe, those who are
familiar with the basic outlines of the events now called the Holocaust gain much greater clarity as to what daily life was like on the run from the Nazis...

“...Some of the most shameful moments of German, French, Swiss—and human—history are recorded here, not for the first time, but in a deeply personal way by someone who experienced their effects as a small child...

“...It is important to remember this: Hitler attacked not just Jewish individuals but Jewish families...In the end, One Step Ahead of Hitler offers the very good news that not even Hitler and his murderers could destroy every Jewish family in Europe, and so the Jewish people survived—viciously assaulted, decimated and traumatized, millions murdered, but the people survived. Thanks be to God--and to every person who fought hard for life amidst the Nazi slaughterhouse.”

 

Eighth graders from St. Francis of Assisi interviewed me for their Holocaust project. Here is an excerpt.

Primary to 8th grade students created more than 1,500 butterflies in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who never “saw another butterfly.”  2013 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Kristal Doolin, front row, center, is pictured here with 7th graders, and her friend (in red sweater). The butterflies “floated” throughout Corbin Middle School.. Below, a cluster of butterflies included a quote from Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel: “No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of night.” Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles volunteered their own creations. A grandfather helped create a butterfly from a shoe (below); a father welded two butterflies, shown in front of the shoe. Mrs. Doolin was recently chosen as a

                                                                                                        Courtesy of Getty Images

St. Francis of Assisi students tour Holocaust Museum

Fred Whittaker, 2nd left, and his friend, left, met a World War II veteran, his son and grandson on Veterans Day in Washington. So, what’s in a name?We’re l named Fred.