The Test of Courage: The true story of Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, Michel Thomas, and his lifelong war against ignorance

Description

Chris Robbins has given us an irresistible phenomenon: obstinate, brilliant, morally incorruptible and one of the bravest men you will ever read about. - John Le Carre The story of Michel Thomas reads like a thriller in which adventure and heartbreak combine to produce a unique form of wisdom. Until his death in 2005, he taught languages to ghetto kids, heads of industry and movie stars in a matter of days, succeeding even with people who considered themselves hopeless linguists. To those who have been taught by him, he seemed to be a miracle worker with a magical gift for unlocking the secret powers of the mind. This unique understanding was gained under extreme circumstances. Having left Poland for Germany, he escaped to France at the start of the Second World War, only to find himself stateless in Vichy France. He was incarcerated and starved in a concentration camp at the foot of the Pyrenees. Forced into slave labour in a coal mine in Provence, he avoided being sent to Auschwitz by hiding within the confines of a deportation camp for six weeks. He escaped death to join the Secret Army of the Resistance. He was arrested and interrogated by Klaus Barbie, Butcher of Lyon, whom he deceived into releasing him, and was later re-arrested by the French Gestapo and tortured. He held out by entering a psychological state in which he no longer registered pain and after six hours of torture, his tormentors threw him into a cell and he survived to re-join the Resistance. After the Allies invaded France he joined the American forces, fought his way into Germany and was with the troops who liberated Dachau. He personally interrogated the camp's hangman and oversaw his handwritten confession. At the end of the war he became a Nazi-hunter. Working for American Counter Intelligence he posed as a Nazi himself to infiltrate and expose underground networks of SS men dedicated to the return of a Fourth Reich. In spite of the fact that his entire family had been murdered in Auschwitz, and many close friends killed in combat, at the very end of the war he staged an elaborate gala evening in Munich which he called a Reconciliation Concert. Using German musicians, and in defiance of strict Allied non-fraternisation laws, he brought friend and foe together in the belief that there had to be a different and better future. Author Christopher Robbins has dug deep to explore and substantiate the details of the Michel Thomas story. He has authenticated every episode through camp records, Vichy documents, Resistance papers, US Army reports and hundreds of hours of interviews with this extraordinary man. The result is one of the most inspirational stories of the 20th century.

Christopher Robbins was born in 1946. He has won a number of awards for his investigative journalism for the Observer on topics such as world-wide smuggling, the treatment of political prisoners in Franco's Spain and CIA involvement in political assassination, including attempts on Fidel Castro, which was developed into a book - "Assassin". He has travelled widely in Russia, investigating the activities of the KGB. He is best known for his 1978 bestseller Air America, a non-fiction book which was made into a film in 1990. It is about the secret airline run by the CIA for covert operations during the Vietnam War. His other books include In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land that Disappeared (also published as Apples Are from Kazakhstan), which won the Dolman Best Travel Book Award, and The Empress of Ireland which won the Saga Award for wit.