In seinen engmaschig komponierten, fast unglaublich klingenden, anekdotenreichen Erinnerungen berichtet der Zeitzeuge Cioma Schönhaus mit Sinn für Selbstironie und Spannung aus seinem wechselvollen Leben im nationalsozialistischen Berlin...
* 'This is so remarkable a story of survival - with its almost apologetic air of fairy tale - that the sceptical might wonder at its authenticity... The writing says otherwise: it has the understated, random improbability of truth' Guardian* 'Now in his eighties, Schonhaus recalls his adventures with gusto... honest and thoughtful... a real page-turner' BBC History Magazine
Cioma Schonhaus was born in Berlin in 1922 of Russian immigrant parents. He studied graphic design and did numerous jobs in the early years of the war. From 1942-3 he remained in Berlin illegally, forging documents for other Jews. While on the Gestapo's wanted list, he escaped armed with papers he'd made himself by cycling into Switzerland, where he still lives today.
Foreword, Translator's Preface: A latter-day Scarlet Pimpernel, Heading home, Looking like veryone else, Prison regulations, The death of a tree, The drunken policeman, Our flat is searched, The bomb, The decent young Aryan, Living like God in France, Adam and Evchen, A one-year sentence, 'Degenerate art', Mimicry, Berlin Alexanderplatz, The waiting room without hope, At the lathe, The compulsory oath of disclosure, Night shift from six till six, 'Date of deportation: 2 June 1942', The postcard, Graphic artist wanted, How to forge a stamp, Illusions, The appendix operation, Dr Franz Kauffman