Luck or Destiny?: The True Story of a Young Man's Adventurous Escape from the Nazis Brings Him to Similar Perils in Cuba

by Emil Muller

Overview

Emil Muller started out to recount his experiences during the short period that began when he was arrested in his home in Berlin and ended with his arrival in Havana. But the reader will get much more than an adventure story or a coming-of-age memoir of a plucky adolescent who life depended upon being able to evade the Nazis who so wanted to exterminate him and every other member of the Jewish people. In this book, the reader will find the history of the world, the tale of a family, and the biography of a boy; the code of ethics and the philosophy to which Judaism adheres; determination and courage in the face of unimaginable danger; hope in the future and joy in the day, every day. This is a story that is too exciting to be real and that is told with the unique style of the author, always with a sense of humor and a sense of mischief that makes the painful bearable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467074834
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	10/06/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

An only child living with his parents in Berlin, Emil Muller was just 16 years old the morning when the Nazis banged on the door of the family apartment and dragged young Emil and his father from their home leaving his mother frightened and alone. Thus began the series of experiences, which Emil refers to as "adventures," during which he made his way across Western Europe attempting to reunite with his parents and escape Germany for America. Another person might not have survived the pressure of being one step ahead of the Nazis with no one to rely upon but himself. However, Emil's personal strength of character, his solid sense of right and wrong, which he developed through a classical Jewish and secular education and observing exceptional role models in his parents' example, and his quick mind, which allowed him to assess a situation and determine the right course of action led him to the rickety ship in which he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in Cuba.

 

During the crossing, he would lie in his bunk bed in the crowded men's dormitory and plan his future. One of the things he promised himself that he would do was to record his adventures during this period of his life. One day, a determined man of 73 bought a typewriter that he did not know how to use, sat down with a stack of blank paper, and started typing his memoir in English, a language he had never studied formally and knew only through speaking it. When he got up, he had a 400-page manuscript that was pure Emil.

 

Emil has lived his life with the same determination and ethical standards that guided him during his escape from Nazism and the writing of this book. He settled in Cuba, built a business, married his beautiful and devoted wife, Nina, and started his family with the birth of a son, Erik, when Castro took over his new homeland. With a sense of déjà vu, he began to plan for his family's departure from the newly-Communist island and headed for New York. Starting from scratch once more, Emil established his jewelry business on 47th Street in New York's jewelry district, saw the birth of daughter, Evelyn, and made a life for himself and his family. Retired now, Emil and Nina enjoy spending time with their granddaughters, Hali and Remi, seeing friends, and traveling.