This is the story of a man, his family, and his determination to survive the Holocaust by fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria and Czechoslovakia. It’s all the more compelling for having been told without malice by a man who was both a grateful refugee and an essentially private person. It reveals how refugees were received in New Zealand in the late 1930s and 1940s, and prevailing attitudes at the time, based on formerly secret government documents. It explores Austria’s belated but growing commitment to atone for past failures concerning its treatment of Jews. Far from being forgotten, what happened in World War II continues to hold global interest.