Joseph Joffo

The full French text is accompanied by vocabulary explanations. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

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In 1941 in occupied Paris, brothers Maurice and Joseph play a last game of marbles before running home to their father's barbershop. This is the day that will change their lives forever. With the German occupation threatening their family's safety, the boys' parents decide Maurice and Joseph must disguise themselves and flee to their older brothers in the free zone. Surviving the long journey will take every scrap of ingenuity and courage they can muster. And if they hope to elude the Nazis, they must never, under any circumstances, admit to being Jewish. The boys travel by train, by ferry, and on foot, facing threats from strangers and receiving help from unexpected quarters. Along the way they must adapt to the unfamiliar world beyond their city--and find a way to be true to themselves even as they conceal their identities. Based on an autobiographical novel by Joseph Joffo and adapted with the author's input, this true story offers a harrowing but inspiring glimpse of a childhood cut short.

When Joseph Joffo was ten years old, his father gave him and his brother 50 francs and instructions to flee Nazi-occupied Paris and, somehow, get to the south where France was free. This book is a story of these children caught in the whirlwind of World War II.