The idea of taking a ship to Cuba, without any guarantee that you will be able to go ashore, scares you as does the notion of illegally stowing away on an Ireland-bound vessel. Instead, you take the overnight train from the Friedrich-Strasse station to the city of Essen and then hide aboard a train headed for Amsterdam. As you enter this old city, you are struck by its beauty.
Your medical training in Germany helps you get a job as an attendant at the Burgerweeshuis, the city orphanage. You find a small boarding house, facing the Ouda Scans Canal, where you rent a room and take your meals for a very reasonable rate. You settle into a stable life and make friends in a Zionist youth group. All goes well until . . . .
. . . Until May 10, 1940, when the “Blitzkrieg,” lightning-fast war, begins. Led by tank divisions, the German army overruns the Netherlands. Four days later, the country surrenders and is occupied by the Germans. Most of the people are bitterly unhappy, but some joined the Dutch Nazi party to help the Germans. You are more afraid of them than of the Germans themselves, and you wonder what to do. Urged by some friends in the Zionist groups, you can go into hiding; you can leave for England like some Dutch Jews, though it is extremely dangerous; or you can flee south to France.
If you choose to go into hiding, continue to page 14.
If you risk crossing the English Channel, continue to page 15.
If you decide to flee to France, continue to page 16.