When I was about 7, my family was on a camping holiday in Queensland, Australia, when my father took me aside and relayed in detail the events that led to his escape from Nazi relocation camps in Austria.
My parents were Holocaust survivors, and part of their worldwide escape took them through several countries to Australia, where they had finally settled and where I was born. I’m an immigrant, and in the United States today, just saying this now puts me at risk of summary arrest and deportation.
My father was an amateur boxer and in excellent physical condition. He had escaped three times from different camps, each time being re-captured. Following his last escape, he hid under the floorboards of his home for three weeks. He then realized he had to leave Austria or he would probably be killed. Over the next several weeks my Dad made his way through Belgium, then to France, and then hiked his way across the Swiss Alps to Switzerland.