The true com­ing-of-age sto­ry set against the rise of fas­cism, the col­lapse of democ­ra­cy in Slo­va­kia and Hun­gary, the attempt­ed geno­cide of the Jew­ish peo­ple, and the even­tu­al con­quest of the Allied Forces over Nazi Ger­many, ESCAPE TO THE TATRAS — A BOY, A WAR AND A LIFE INTER­RUPT­ED tells the sto­ry of one child’s remark­able jour­ney encom­pass­ing the essence of life before and through­out World War II.

Dur­ing the ter­ri­fy­ing years of depri­va­tion, depor­ta­tion, and impris­on­ment of Jews, many of whom were sent off toNazi labor and exter­mi­na­tion camps, the Staub fam­i­ly (moth­er Irene, father Frici, and their young son Oskar), cit­i­zens of Presov, Slo­va­kia, fled for their lives in order to hide from the bru­tal Slo­va­kian forces and their Ger­man operatives.Young Osi, who wit­nessed it all, found the courage and resilien­cy to cope with chal­lenges far beyond his years. Writ­ten sev­en decades lat­er with the pre­ci­sion of unfail­ing mem­o­ry and the pain of per­son­al expe­ri­ence, Oscar (Osi) (Staub) Sladek tells an unfor­get­table sto­ry of resilience and per­son­al triumph.