Good Morning

Joseph Stevens survived the Holocaust by outsmarting the Nazis: the young Polish Jew posed as a Catholic by day and fought in the underground resistance movement by night. Stevens recounts his wartime experiences and their lessons for today in his book, "Good Morning: A Life Story of Courage and Survival in the Face of Nazi Aggression."

Stevens' parents and siblings died in concentration camps and he himself never expected to live through World War II. He did so by courage, luck and deception so brilliant that German soldiers befriended him and a local priest recruited him to teach catechism. Even his friends, who joined him in guerrilla raids on German troops, had no idea he was a Jew. 

At all times he carried cyanide capsules with him in case he was captured and tortured, but Stevens survived the war to move to the United States, raise a family, and build a successful printing business. Forty years after the war, he finally began telling his story in classes on the Holocaust at Grand Valley State University, in west Michigan. Subsequently, "Good Morning" became GVSU's first university-press book. Proceeds from its sales go to the Joe Stevens Freedom Endowment.