One Day: A True Story of Survival in the Holocaust by Michael Rosen with illustrations by Benjamin Phillips; Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press (c) 2025; ISBN 9781536-623945; 32 pages; $18.99.
SAN DIEGO — “One day at a time. One day after another” was the motto of Holocaust escapees Eugene Handschuh and his father Oscar.
Accordingly, father and son submitted to the brutal schedule the Nazis forced on them until they perceived an opportunity to escape — not once, but twice.
The first attempted escape was from the Drancy Internment Camp near Paris, France, where more than 40 inmates dug a tunnel that extended 115 feet before their Nazi captors got wind of it. The tunnel diggers ran back to their barracks, but the Nazis found clothing with a piece of paper in the pocket, containing the name of one of the diggers.
The Nazis questioned and threatened him to give up the names of his co-conspirators. Fearing for the safety of women and children prisoners, he finally agreed to give up 13 names, including those of the Handschuhs. The unlucky 13 people were lined up against the wall, execution style, but it was only to frighten them. They would not be killed at Drancy, they would be shipped “to the east” to meet their fates. Not knowing the names of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek, or other killing centers, the French Jews named their unknown destination “Pitchipoi” — a nonsensical term.
On the train to Auschwitz, the Handschuh’s escaped through a window in which the bars could be loosened. Oscar Handschuh landed so hard he was knocked unconscious by the side of the tracks. When he came to, he escaped to a farmhouse where the residents were sympathetic to Jews. They sheltered him and drove him back to Paris.
Eugene, his son, fortuitously escaped near a crowded train platform. He mixed in with the civilians there and wasn’t detected. After a while, he bought train tickets back to Paris, where, amazingly, he was reunited with his father.
Then father and son joined the forces of the Resistance.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.