January 1, 2013
A riveting and unusual Holocaust memoir that plays out like a Hollywood action film. Never in a concentration camp, young Dagobert Lewin survives the entire war on the run in Nazi Berlin. Fifty years later, he rediscovers his buried past. Dagobert is eighteen years old when the Gestapo deport his parents and enslave Dagobert at a machine gun factory in Berlin. Miraculously, tipped off the morning the Nazis arrest all Jewish factory workers, he goes underground. Dagobert lives in bombed out buildings, poses as a member of the Waffen-SS, and steals a Gestapo car and identification card. His charm and skills prompt a diverse crop of Germans to help him, ranging from a blind communist to Hitler’s favorite cameraman. When the Gestapo eventually capture Dagobert, they mistake him for a British spy and torture him in a Berlin dungeon prison. There are breathtaking escapes, romance, and a wife and baby Dagobert would forget for decades.
Meticulously researched, this jaw-dropping true story illuminates exhilarating survival in the heart of Nazi Germany.
Discussion Questions
Courtesy of Bev Saltzman Lewyn
- What was your initial reaction to the book? Did it hook you quickly? Had you ever read a book where the Holocaust survivor was in Berlin the whole time and was never in a concentration camp?
- What surprised you the most about Dagobert’s story?
- Do you think it was harder or easier to survive on the run than it would have been in a concentration camp?
- Could you have married for the reasons Dagobert did?
- What were the themes of Dagobert’s strategy to survive when he was a U‑Boat? Could you do what Dagobert did?
- Do you believe they were miracles or luck: Was it a miracle that he was tipped off not to go to work the morning of the Fabrikaktion/Factory Action? Was it a miracle that he escaped the Gestapo prison by making a key? Was it a miracle that the Russian soldier was Jewish and knew of Dagobert’s uncle?
- Can you imagine forgetting that you had a wife and son? How would you have felt discovering this again years later?
- How would you have felt to be Ilse and to learn Dagobert largely forgot you? Would you have contacted Dagobert/Bert if you saw he was searching for you?
- Do you think it was a good thing that Bert forgot about Ilse and Gad?
- Gunther didn’t tell his kids that he had changed his name. They didn’t discover about his past until after he had died. How would you suggest they interpret that?
- Was On the Run in Nazi Berlin ultimately a hopeful story?
