Antoine Martin, the man with many names and secrets, escaped the devastating violence of World War II to come to America as a stowaway with a tiny suitcase, a big dream, and an even bigger heart. Born in 1922 to a poor Sephardic Jewish family in Salonika, Antoine spent his first dozen years in Greece before his family moved to France and then Spain to escape poverty. Caught up in the Spanish revolution, his parents sent him back to France in 1938 to live with relatives, but circumstances forced him to join the French Foreign Legion as a sixteen-year-old. The Germans captured Antoine's unit early in World War II and sent him to POW camps in Germany and Poland where he had to conceal his Jewish identity for four years. After multiple escape attempts, he finally succeeded and joined the Polish and later the French underground to fight. After the war Antoine traveled to America hidden in a freighter with hopes to begin a new life in New York where he knew nobody. Kind strangers helped him start his quest of the American dream. Until he gained legal residency and eventually citizenship, he lived with the fear of deportation-and a scornful woman who threatened to expose him. This book is Antoine's account of how he did whatever it took to stay alive through uncertain times. It includes his struggles as well as the endearing and spicy sides of his life. His story reflects the history of the 20th century for both Jews and Gentiles. It's a story of chasing dreams. And it's a story that's timeless, of the will and strength to survive and prosper in spite of the odds. Antoine's photographs from the French Foreign Legion, POW camps, and documents he used to hide his true identity from the Germans augment this powerful story.
