My Train to Freedom: A Jewish Boy's Journey from Nazi Europe to a Life of Activism

by Ivan A. Backer

Overview

The breathtaking memoir by a member of “Nicky’s family,” a group of 669 Czechoslovakian children who escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport project, My Train to Freedom relates the trials and achievements of award-winning humanitarian and former Episcopal priest, Ivan Backer.

As Backer recounts in his memoir, in May of 1939 as a ten-year-old Jewish boy, he fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia for the United Kingdom aboard one of the Kindertransport trains organized by Nicholas Winton, a young London stockbroker. The final train was canceled September 1 when Hitler invaded Poland. The 250 children scheduled for that train were left on the platform and later transported to concentration camps and presumably perished.

Detailed in this page-turning true story is Backer’s dangerous escape, his boyhood in England, his perilous 1944 voyage to America, and his mantra today. Now he is an eighty-six-year-old who remains an activist for peace and justice. He has been influenced by his Jewish heritage, his Christian boarding school education in England, and the always present question, “For what purpose was I spared the Holocaust?”

My Train to Freedom was thoroughly researched and shaped by Backer’s own memories. It includes interviews he conducted in 1980 in Czech with his mother and her sister, later translated into English; a collection of conversations he had with his older brother and cousin; insights gained from the Czech film, Nicky’s Family, about the Kindertransport; and concludes with never-before-published death march accounts by two family members.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634506045
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ivan Backer was born in Czechoslovakia in 1929 and escaped the Holocaust as a ten-year-old. He came to the United States via England in 1944, and, after earning degrees in theology, held a number of positions at Trinity College. He worked as a parish priest and, living in Hartford, Connecticut, served as the president and executive director of the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (SINA). His community involvement reached beyond his professional responsibilities and resulted in his service on at least seventeen boards of directors, task forces, and coalitions. Today, he continues to reside in Hartford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Preface xiii

Chapter 1 The Kindertransport Kid, 1939 1

Chapter 2 Childhood Memories from before the Nazis, 1929-1939 7

Chapter 3 The Rest of My Family Escapes, One by One, 1939 19

Chapter 4 My Three English Families, 1939 29

Chapter 5 From School to School to School, 1939-1944 41

Chapter 6 Perilous Voyage to America, 1944 57

Chapter 7 New York, 1944-1946 63

Chapter 8 Why Was I Spared? 1946-1952 71

Chapter 9 Being a Businessman and an Activist, 1952-1963 79

Chapter 10 Being a Parish Priest and an Activist, 1964-1969 83

Chapter 11 Being an Educator and an Activist, 1969-1979 91

Chapter 12 Being a President and an Activist, 1979-1999 101

Chapter 13 Being Retired and Still art Activist, 1999-Now 109

Chapter 14 Am I a Jew? Am I a Christian? 121

Chapter 15 People, Places, and Things: An Update 123

Afterword 139

Trains 141

Appendix 1 From Flossenbürg to Freedom 145

Appendix 2 Auschwitz and Death March Survivor Liselott Bächer Fraenkl 179

Appendix 3 Letter from Nicholas Winton's Mother, Barbara, to My Mother, 1940 185

Acknowledgments 187