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The Story of a Young Jew, Wartime Resistance, and a Daring Escape
by Arthur J. Magida
The extraordinary true story of a young Jewish art student who not just survived but resisted and saved hundred of lives—all while retaining his infectious zeal for life.
Though Cioma Schonhaus was only 11 years old when the Nazis first came to power, his cleverness and resourcefulness eventually made him an unlikely hero and bon vivant. As a young adult staying one step ahead of the S.S., Cioma would dine in swanky restaurants and frequent trendy bars and have plenty of romances—all while sabotaging weapons in the munitions factory where he worked. He even bought a sailboat and taught himself how to sail.
These hijinks never distracted Cioma from a deeper mission. Trained as an artist, Cioma's masterfully forged fake ID's ensured that several hundred Jews survived the war. When he learned the Gestapo was closing in on him, Cioma masterminded a singularly daring escape: spending a month biking to Switzerland, he became the only person to cycle his way out of the Third Reich.
Beautifully written and deeply satisfying, Two Wheels to Freedom is a story of survival and resistance unlike any other. Arthur J. Magida captures Cioma's exuberance, charm, spunk, and courage. His was a life lived with wonderment, one that the author sets seamlessly against the horrors of history while never losing sight of Cioma's "wily ways, his zest for life, and his appetite for improbable adventures—all of them delighting in the magic that's beyond the ordinary and the staid." Two Wheels to Freedom is an exhilarating read that by turns illuminates and inspires.
"A Jewish art student trapped in Berlin during WWII maintains a brazen, outgoing social life while secretly combating the Nazi regime in this surprising and propulsive tale. In Magida's winsome portrait, Schönhaus's indomitable spirit and absolute calm under astonishing pressure make for riveting reading. It's unputdownable." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This surprisingly breezy tale of a young man's flying under the Nazi radar in Berlin belies the peril facing Jews during the war. Prolific author Magid fashions an incredible tale of derring-do in defiance of the murderous Nazis. An amazing story that would seem unlikely if it were not so well documented." —Kirkus Reviews
"Two Wheels to Freedom provides a riveting account of a young Jewish man living in Adolf Hitler's Berlin. It is a story as inspiring as it is astonishing—a uplifting testament to the human capacity for survival and triumph even in the darkest of times." —Timothy W. Ryback, author of Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power
This information about Two Wheels to Freedom was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Arthur J. Magida has been nominated for a Pulitzer and won multiple awards. His last two books—Code Name Madeleine ("absolutely gripping," "tightly plotted") and The Nazi Séance ("an astonishing story, brilliantly told," "haunting, vivid")—are optioned for films. He's been a contributing correspondent to PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, senior editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, and editorial director for Jewish Lights Publishing. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
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