Two Wheels to Freedom
The Story of a Young Jew, Wartime Resistance, and a Daring Escape
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- £13.99
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- £13.99
Publisher Description
The extraordinary true story of a young Jewish art student in wartime Berlin who not just survived but resisted—and retained his infectious zeal for life.
Though Cioma Schonhaus was only 11 years old when the Nazis first came to power, his cleverness and resourcefulness eventually made him an unlikely hero and bon vivant. As a young adult staying one step ahead of the S.S., Cioma would dine in swanky restaurants and frequent trendy bars, and have plenty of romances -- all while sabotaging weapons in the munitions factory where he worked. He even bought a sailboat and taught himself how to sail.
These hijinks never distracted Cioma from a deeper mission. Trained as an artist, Cioma’s fake ID's ensured that several hundred Jews survived the war. When he learned the Gestapo was closing in on him, Cioma masterminded a singularly daring escape: spending a month biking to Switzerland, he became the only person to cycle his way out of the Third Reich.
Beautifully written and deeply satisfying, Two Wheels to Freedom is a story of survival and resistance unlike any other. Arthur J. Magida captures Cioma’s exuberance, charm, spunk and courage. His was a life lived with wonderment, one that the author sets seamlessly against the horrors of history while never losing sight of Cioma’s “wily ways, his zest for life, and his appetite for improbable adventures—all of them delighting in the magic that’s beyond the ordinary and the staid.” Two Wheels to Freedom is an exhilarating read that by turns illuminates and inspires.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Jewish art student trapped in Berlin during WWII maintains a brazen, outgoing social life while secretly combating the Nazi regime in this surprising and propulsive tale. Pulitzer finalist Magida (Code Name Madeleine) recaps the story of Cioma Schönhaus (1922–2015), a "bon vivant" and "connoisseur of outrageous... gestures" who, in possession of a work permit that allowed him to stay in Berlin long after his parents and most of the city's Jews were taken to concentration camps, routinely passed as an "Aryan" and went out partying. Sabotaging weapons at the munitions factory where he worked during the day, by night he took on different identities, eventually connecting with members of the Jewish underground and, with his background in graphic design, offering his services as a forger of fake IDs. When his contacts in the underground were caught by the Gestapo, he fled Germany by bicycle (he was the only person to do so, Magida asserts), making a monthslong trek to the Swiss border during which he had many up-close encounters with German soldiers and civilians (on several nights, he stayed in swanky hotels, having learned that confidence was the best way to pass as Aryan). In Magida's winsome portrait, Schönhaus's indomitable spirit (he refused "to let the glumness of the Third Reich swallow him") and absolute calm under astonishing pressure make for riveting reading. It's unputdownable.