Luck and Chutzpah: Against all odds [Hardcover]

Hillel Halkin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9652291595 | ISBN-13: 978-9652291592 | Publication Date: October 1997 | Edition: First Edition

This isn't another Holocaust book, it's an adventure story, says author Hans Kahn, a Holocaust survivor who escaped from the Nazis with no more than the shirt on his back.

Luck and Chutzpah is an exciting tale of daring, escape and adventure and about not giving in. It is a gripping, poignant and sometimes funny memoir of his flight from Holland to Belgium, France and Spain, where he sailed to England to join the Dutch Navy-In-Exile. He traveled under the assumed identity of a Belgium naval cadet, went by bicycle, foot and train, hid in coal bins and stowed away on a freighter, hobnobbed with smugglers, whores, priests, resistance fighters and Nazi officers, killed a German guard and holed up for two weeks in a French brothel while the Gestapo looked for him everywhere.

He gained his manhood and lost faith in all but himself as he fought to get to the sea which had been his first love. Kahn's story, so brilliantly re-told by Hillel Halkin, one of Israel's most respected writers and translators, is both riveting and inspiring.

"Kahn's perilous escape (from the Nazis) to join the free Dutch forces is a story of daring determination and intense passion."

Abraham Foxman National Director Anti-Defamation League

Editorial Reviews

Review

A must read for every jew, to always strive for one's personal goals and to never give up. -- Joshua Bendahan, USA, April 2006 Joshua Bendahan

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Gefen Books; First Edition edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9652291595
• ISBN-13: 978-9652291592
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,155,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars SOME LUCK...AND A LOT OF CHUTZPAH!, September 28, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Jerusalem) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Luck and Chutzpah: Against all odds (Hardcover)

LUCK AND CHUTZPAH: Against All Odds

by Hans G. Kahn: The Man Who Never Surrendered

"I suppose you could call me a Holocaust survivor, but I wasn't liberated from the Holocaust. The Holocaust liberated me." - H.G. Kahn

Hans Kahn is a fighter. It's in his mature. Fifty years ago, when millions of Jews were being shepherded to their deaths, Hans G. Kahn chose to fight back. After watching his family and friends submit unquestioningly to the laws of the Germans he decided that he would not allow himself to be powerless. He would never surrender or bend.

Nothing in his youth suggests such a remarkably tough character. Born in Berlin in 1922 to a well-to-do German Jewish family, Hans spent most of his life in Holland. Despite the protests of his educated father, Hans knew he wanted to be a Jewish sailor.

When the Germans carried out a house-to-house search looking for Jews to deport, Kahn stealthily fled to Belgium. Taking on the persona of a naval cadet from Belgium, Kahn even had a meal with a Nazi officer convinced by the disguise. Yet like so many others, Hans was eventually caught by the Nazis and deported to the Vernet Concentration camp in Vichy-France.

True to his credo, Hans did not surrender, nor bend to authority. After killing a German guard, he took refuge in a church in Toulouse, where he was hidden in a French brothel that serviced German officers. Finally, Hans was taken to a farm where he remained for four months, until resistance fighters guided him to Britain. There he enlisted in the Dutch Navy-in-Exile.

After the war, Kahn helped establish and train the new Israeli navy which fought in Israel's War of Independence. He returned to Holland to go into business for himself, eventually founding Jumbo Navigation, the world's first shipping company to conceive, build and operate special ships for the transport of large, heavy units.

These days, Kahn spends his time aboard his yacht with his family or in his house Ceasaria. Still a fighter - loyal to his friends and hard on his enemies - he continues to rage at the Jews who went timidly to their deaths. Even so, he welcomes the Sabbath every Friday night, and will proudly tell you of the happiness he derived from sitting in synagogue with his grandson on Saturday mornings. The writing is absorbing and the story presented shows how one man was not willing to be caught by the Nazis or be made a victim. His daring story shows how it was possible to fight back as long as you had luck and chutzpah.