Escape Through the Pyrenees (Jewish Lives) Paperback – March 1, 2000

What an amazing life Lisa Fitko lived. I highly recommend.

For anyone who wants an inside look at how certain groups of Jewish refugees escaped over the Pyrenees, this is an excellent book! Lisa and her husband, Hans, were actually refugees themselves (Hans was not Jewish, but also escaping capture by the Nazis for his political writings), and worked for Varian Fry's organization, helping people escape over the mountains. The book also describes the Fittkos own escape in an entirely different way. I really liked the book!

There are a lot of secrets and stories of the War, but having stayed in the area in which the events of this book happened, the amazing feats of Lisa and Hans Fittko, and their efforts for the French Resistance to guide hundreds of people over an old smugglers track high in the Pyrenees into Spain without payment, is a wonderful insight into lives of people during the War.

ISBN 0810109891 - LCCC #91-9629 Original title "Mein Weg uber die Pyrenaen", in German. Does not say where the book was made/printed/manufactured. Paperback, 221 pages. Published by Northwestern University Press, in 1991. By Lisa Fittko, translated to English by David Koblick.Elizabeth (Lisa) Eckstein was very young when World War I ended and she agreed with her father: there must never be another war. She was ten at the time and had no way of knowing that there would, in fact, be another war - or that she would be amongst the many largely unknown (short term renown is not the same as "known") heroes of this one. Politically active and anti-Facist, Lisa and her husband worked against the Nazis in every way available to them before fleeing themselves. From Berlin to Paris to a camp in Gurs, Lisa's story is not particularly uncommon. Until, that is, she begins helping others to escape the Nazis, via a route through the Pyrenees. Eventually Lisa and her husband are able to reach Cuba and, finally, America. (though I'm not sure that her husband reached the U.S. That's a strangely vague detail in the book.)The first thing to strike me about this book is this one oddity: I have never, not once, read a book about WWII that has no reviews. Ever. Even the worst books about the era have reviews. I found that strange - and it made me want to read this one more than usual. The fact that Lisa Fittko settled, and died, in Chicago was certainly a small factor, of course. I can't explain that "hometown author" thing, but I confess I have it.Escape was a hard book to read and even harder to review, for a couple reasons. For one thing, so very much happens in 221 pages. It's difficult, sometimes, to remember where the story began, because it moves so quickly and the Fittkos (and everyone else) go through so much in their fight against Facism and their eventual flight to freedom. It isn't especially well-written (whether that's the fault of the author or of the translator, I do not know), but it does hold your attention, in the way that falling down a hillside will hold your attention - you really have no other choice.At the same time, despite being written by an old woman and then translated by a man, the book still reads as if it was written by a young woman with more important things on her mind (war, death, survival...) than writing a book - as if she is more telling a story than writing a book. It's an appealing way to "hear" her story.After I'd finished this book, I did a small amount of research into Lisa Fittko, out of curiosity, looking for two bits of information. One, she mentions her husband Hans writing a book - I have not found it, and assume it was not published. I was also especially interested in her claim to have helped Walter Benjamin (author of  Illuminations: Essays and Reflections ) to escape with a briefcase "more valuable to him than his life." I can't come up with any real reason that Fittko would have lied, so I tend to believe her story, but sadly no other accounts seem to exist to confirm this tale.In all, Escape is not a great read, or always easy to follow, but is worth reading for the smaller-scale, personal story of the years of WWII prior to the involvement of the United States. There are oodles of WWII heroes and books about them, but this is one that feels very real in a way that few others have, for me.- AnnaLovesBooks

this book tells the stories of some of the 6-8million refugees from Nazi occupied Europe; the difficulties of red tape in order to get out of Marseille during the early days of WW2 in divided France.the courage and fortitude of these people is a real inspiration; with little or no money, on the barest of food and drink,the strength of character forming the bonds of friendship and aid, those who could trust and hold on to their beliefs-these are they who can survive. Fittko chronicles also those who did not. And Those who end upin all parts of the worldConducting escapees across the Pyranees, using pathways of shepherds, known only to local people who helpeddraw routes into Spain. Many famous artists, writers and political people took these routes guided by Lisa Fittko, herhusband and others.this book could have been a really depressing read but instead, like any good adventure story, encourages bravery, loyalty underlying our need foreachothers support, amazing kindness is shown. Love really in all its forms.

A fascinating book for me because I know the area where the escapes took place and have myself walked over the mountain between France and Spain, though by a shorter route from Cerbère. That was in 1947. Anybody who holidays there should try it. For background to the wavering Spanish reception of the refugees, see Payne's "Franco and Hitler".