"I was luckier. I found work making leather bags,
thanks to the trade I had learned in Vienna.
Because I had work, I was able to live in Paris
for the next year or so. I worked and I drank
wine, cheap wine, with my meals.
Refugees who had escaped Nazi Germany kept
arriving in Paris. They spoke of the campaign
of violence and terror, of people living in fear.
I never forgot the stories I heard."
As he did in his own memoir, Chance: Escape from the Holocaust (2020), Uri Shulevitz here tells a story of his Uncle Yehiel's life in the years before WWII. Born in Poland and very unhappy with the harshness of his Jewish upbringing, Yehiel left home at 15 in search of adventure. He found work in Austria with a leather worker, learning a trade that would be useful later in his life.
As the Nazi party rose in power and wreaked havoc with European politics, he made the decision to leave. His travels took him to many places as he looked for work and safety. Quick thinking, kind strangers and some great good luck ensured his survival. He settled in Spain, which led to fighting in the Spanish Civil War and enduring many hardships. Later he worked with the Jewish resistance in France. Each new experience, though often trying, also helped Yehiel discover himself while learning to live on his own. Eventually, he changed his name to Henri Sulewic, married, and spent his later years painting pictures of the Jewish community where he was born.
Uri Shulevitz, in his final work published following his death, allows readers a close look at history from the perspective of a very young man. He is deeply affected by his experiences, and has his own impact as he pursues the adventure his heart demands. Family photos add to the reality of the story told, as well as black-and-white drawings that add dimension to the people and places mentioned. It is both heartbreaking and uplifting to read this first-person powerful narrative. An afterword concludes and includes copies of Yehiel's art.
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