David and Sophie Goetzel left Germany in 1935 to escape Nazi anti-Semitism. They moved to Warsaw, Poland, and were married. Once there, they planned to move to a safer country, farther away from the Nazi threat. But when their daughter, Micki, was born in 1937, financial constraints forced them to delay those plans. On September 1, 1939, they were awakened at dawn by the rumble of German aircraft. The war had begun, and David was angry with himself for not having already emigrated to a safer country. He vowed he would never again allow his inaction to endanger his loved ones. With dogged determination, help from the people he befriended along the way and luck, he guided his wife and two-year-old daughter through the siege of Warsaw, their separation and hiding on the Aryan side of the city, his application for emigration at the Hotel Polski and their two years of internment in Bergen-Belsen. David never gave up hope. He, Sophie and Micki all survive because of it.
