Calgary Public Library

From loss to liberation, Joseph Tomasov

eng

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non fiction

From loss to liberation

Joseph Tomasov

The Azrieli series of Holocaust survivor memoirs, Series IX

"'At first we weren't sure what was happening, but by looking through a small ventilation pipe we soon found out. We saw the Germans, who had followed our footsteps in the snow. A group of four or five of them were moving three machine guns on skis along the road, continuously firing parallel to the horse stable and the roads. There was no way out.' Joseph Tomasov experiences loss even at a young age - being only three years old when his mother is placed in an institution and twelve when his father dies. At the age of nineteen, Joe is living in Czechoslovakia and working for a family as a tutor at the start of World War II. After being sent to a forced labour camp, Joe escapes and joins the Slovak resistance, fighting to free his country from the Nazi invaders. After the war's end, the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia complicates his plan to emigrate. Arrested and imprisoned for three years by the communist regime, Joe later returns to family life until confronted once again by another invasion, this time by the Soviets, and once again must choose freedom."