One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe

361 Pages·2016·25.98 MB·English

by  Alfred Philip Feldman

ONE
SIEP
AHEAD
This page intentionally left blank
ONE
STEP
AHEAD
Alfred Feldman
With a Foreword by
Susan Zuccotti
Southern Illinois University Press
Corbondale and Edwardsville
Copyright © 2001 by Alfred Philip Fekiman
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
04 03 02 01 4 3 21
Publication partially funded by a subvention grant from the Lucius N. Littauer
Foundation.
The epigraph to chapter 13 is reprinted with permission from The Memoirs of Field-
Marshal Kesselring, Presidio Press, Novato, CA, USA, The translation of the Kaddish
in chapter 15 is reprinted with permission from Leon Wieseltier.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feldman, Alfred, 1923-
One step ahead : a Jewish fugitive in Hitler's Europe /
Alfred Feldman ; with a foreword by Susan Zuccotti.
p. cm.
1. Feldman, Alfred, 1923— . 2. Jews—Germany—Cologne—Biog-
raphy. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Germany—Cologne—Per-
sonal narratives. 4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Italy—Personal
narratives. 5. Refugees, Jewish—France—Biography. 6. Refugees, Jew-
ish—Italy—Biography. 7. Cologne (Germany)—Biography. I. Title.
DS135.G5F33 2001
943'.5514086'092—dc21
[B]
ISBN 0-8093-2411 -3 (alk. paper) 2001020172
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For my wife
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Susan Zuccotti
Acknowledgments xxiii
1. How We Arrived in Germany, and How We Left 1
2. The Halfway House 22
3. Practice Makes Perfect 43
4. A Crazy Summer 60
5. Time Turns Back 71
6. The Warmth of a Mother's Love 90
7. My Life as Somebody Else 102
8. A Biblical Migration 121
9. Vogelfrei 136
10. A Failed Rescue 145
11. The Cave of San Mauro 155
12. The Privilege to Be Shot as a Partisan 164
13. The Oldest Instinct 177
14. A Voyage of Discovery 199
15. Aftershocks 214
16. The Past Revisited 239
Chronology 253
Letters 277
Notes 315
This page intentionally left blank
Illustrations
Genealogy of the Feidman Family facing page 1
Maps
1. Belgium and its prewar border with Germany 19
2. May 18, 1940 (Saturday). The Feidman family
leaves Coxyde for Bordeaux. 52
3. May 1940 to November 1942. Alfreds path from
Antwerp to Le Puy en Velay. 55
4. November 11, 1942, to September 8, 1943.
Alfreds path from Le Puy en Velay to Gorre. 117
5. September 1943 to May 1945. Alfreds path from
St. Martin-Vesubie to Gorre. 128
Plates
Following page 120
Alfred's father, Joachim Feidman; Alfred's mother, Paula; her
mother, Scheindel Chaja Bauminger; and her husband, Isaac
Bauminger. Hamburg, Germany, 1920s.
Passport photo of Alfred's grandmother, Chinka Feidman. Co-
logne, Germany, 1934.
Aunt Betty Knoll and her son Simon. Cologne, Germany, 1935.
Alfred's sisters Jenny and Hella, Alfred's cousin Ines Rosenbaum,
and Alfreds sister Edith at the beach. Knokke, Belgium, summer
1938.
ix