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The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin
In Nazi Germany, 20-year-old graphic artist Cioma Schönhaus found a unique outlet for his talent: he forged documents for people fleeing the Reich, ultimately helping to save hundreds of lives. Yet, even as the Gestapo posted his photo in public, he lived a daring life, replete with fine restaurants & beautiful women, all the while managing to elude the Nazis. Breathtakingly bold, Schönhaus talked his way out of an arrest, defended Jewish diners being harassed by the police, & ultimately fled Germany by bicycling to Switzerland. Schönhaus’ story--his courageous exploits that saved so many, as many others around him were deported, one by one, to the concentration camps--is an astonishing tale of wartime heroism & survival.
235 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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October 21, 2019
For a completely different and very enjoyable look at Nazi Germany through the life of a Jewish man who never got sent to the camps, I can't recommend this highly enough. It's not the best of writing, but it is the best of stories. A ten-star look at a world I would never otherwise have heard of.
The whole genre of Holocaust literature inspires horror and revulsion for the Nazis, disgust for the collaborating and enabling Germans and great sympathy for the Jews and other victims of the vile policies of Hitler if not for his entirely morally-bankrupt enablers and admirers, Henry Ford, Lady Nancy Astor and Joseph Kennedy amongst them.
Cioma is a cheeky chappy who will always find a way around any situation and thoroughly enjoys outwitting those who would have him deported to the camps and gassed. But he can't do this alone and through him we see a whole network of Jews living a sort of underlife in the cities. This underlife was enabled by right-thinking Germans who weren't necessarily heroes of the resistance but neither were they going to see people murdered for some evil, invented political propaganda that was being touted as truth . And if they wanted a nice lamp from the house, well, that's how people are. Your life for a lamp! Much, much more than a fair exchange. Not all of them were selfless, but all of them were heroes.
What Cioma did was alter genuine documents from the original German owners to the new Jewish ones. Some of the documents at least came from Christians in a particular church who would drop them as offerings at the end of the Sunday service. It was no risk to them, they just went to the local Post Office and said they'd lost them. But to the Jews, they were the diffence between being stopped on the street and sent to the camps and being nodded on, with a smile, to go about their daily business.
Cioma spends years hot-bedding, having affairs, living an underground life, very precarious but plenty of joy interspersed with the every-present worry of deportation and death in the camps. Eventually though, Cioma cycles and then swims to freedom across a freezing lake to Switzerland, where he lived, working as a graphic artist until his death in 2015.
Alev HaShalom, RIP, Cioma, without your book, I'd never have known that there were Jews throughout the Nazi period who never got sent to the camps, nor the Germans who helped them live this life.
read May 26th, 2011, review totally rewritten Oct 2019
The whole genre of Holocaust literature inspires horror and revulsion for the Nazis, disgust for the collaborating and enabling Germans and great sympathy for the Jews and other victims of the vile policies of Hitler if not for his entirely morally-bankrupt enablers and admirers, Henry Ford, Lady Nancy Astor and Joseph Kennedy amongst them.
Cioma is a cheeky chappy who will always find a way around any situation and thoroughly enjoys outwitting those who would have him deported to the camps and gassed. But he can't do this alone and through him we see a whole network of Jews living a sort of underlife in the cities. This underlife was enabled by right-thinking Germans who weren't necessarily heroes of the resistance but neither were they going to see people murdered for some evil, invented political propaganda that was being touted as truth . And if they wanted a nice lamp from the house, well, that's how people are. Your life for a lamp! Much, much more than a fair exchange. Not all of them were selfless, but all of them were heroes.
What Cioma did was alter genuine documents from the original German owners to the new Jewish ones. Some of the documents at least came from Christians in a particular church who would drop them as offerings at the end of the Sunday service. It was no risk to them, they just went to the local Post Office and said they'd lost them. But to the Jews, they were the diffence between being stopped on the street and sent to the camps and being nodded on, with a smile, to go about their daily business.
Cioma spends years hot-bedding, having affairs, living an underground life, very precarious but plenty of joy interspersed with the every-present worry of deportation and death in the camps. Eventually though, Cioma cycles and then swims to freedom across a freezing lake to Switzerland, where he lived, working as a graphic artist until his death in 2015.
Alev HaShalom, RIP, Cioma, without your book, I'd never have known that there were Jews throughout the Nazi period who never got sent to the camps, nor the Germans who helped them live this life.
read May 26th, 2011, review totally rewritten Oct 2019
January 2, 2020
“You see, Schönhaus, …you can never rule out miracles, but you shouldn’t bet on them either.” That what Cioma Schönhaus remembers of his friend’s advice to him. Schönhaus takes a lot of chances in this memoir and he documents the reasons and consequences with more skill than I expected.
The author was very young in Germany when Hitler came to power. As a Jew, he had first-hand knowledge of how his family and friends were threatened, constricted and placed in camps by the Third Reich.
He was one of the fortunate ones for many reasons, which he describes. His work camp was not one of the worst. His mistakes were not fatal. He did not “look Jewish.” After an incident he hears this inner voice telling him: “Cioma, listen: you need an Aryan ID card, not one with the name “Israel” on it, but one that says you’re not a Jew.” He goes home and takes a razor blade and begins to scrape Israel off hs ID card, when his mother finds him. “Mama. Do that. Report that (the card) is lost. But, I’m keeping the pass without the “Israel” all the same…I sat down on her bed and took her hand in mine: ‘Mama, I want to live, I want to get out of here.’”
And that is when The Forger really begins.
Schönhaus has a conversational style that makes it easy to accept his life story and all the challenging things that happen to him. It reads much like a first-person thriller complete with surprises, narrow escapes and growing-up experiences.
One of the strengths of The Forger is our narrator’s voice. Just like his journey from adolescence into adulthood, his experiences affect his actions and his observations and his personality expands concurrently.
He is an only child and his parents dote on him. His father offers him life-affirming advice which he retains and tries to apply. This is augmented at intervals by other adults he meets or works with. Here is an example: “Schönhaus, your father’s friend is right, but his also wrong. Morality is for people living an orderly life. When you can’t plan for the future, as we can’t now, it’s only the present moment that counts. Of course, there are people who would stick to the straight and narrow even in hell itself. But they are the exceptions. And it’s only after the event that you can tell whether you are one of the exceptions.”
This book is an intimate view of the resistance by some Germans to the Nazis, particularly in Berlin. It details the ingenuity that went into “hiding in plain sight” and “knowing one’s enemy.” If Schönhaus has his naïve moments, much of that is mixed with hope: “We agreed on one idea: in our diminishingly small world the kind of original Christianity that Leo Tolstoy wrote about should be compulsory for the whole of humanity. And once there was no longer any distinction between Christians and Jews, anti-Semitism would automatically vanish.”
By the time this account ends, Schönhaus has helped many, many Jews and others avoid Nazi imprisonment and death. He is more lucky than careful but eventually escapes himself and lives in his adopted country until his death in 2015. This is a book that will entertain and enlighten with its details of life in Berlin during the Nazi era.
The author was very young in Germany when Hitler came to power. As a Jew, he had first-hand knowledge of how his family and friends were threatened, constricted and placed in camps by the Third Reich.
He was one of the fortunate ones for many reasons, which he describes. His work camp was not one of the worst. His mistakes were not fatal. He did not “look Jewish.” After an incident he hears this inner voice telling him: “Cioma, listen: you need an Aryan ID card, not one with the name “Israel” on it, but one that says you’re not a Jew.” He goes home and takes a razor blade and begins to scrape Israel off hs ID card, when his mother finds him. “Mama. Do that. Report that (the card) is lost. But, I’m keeping the pass without the “Israel” all the same…I sat down on her bed and took her hand in mine: ‘Mama, I want to live, I want to get out of here.’”
And that is when The Forger really begins.
Schönhaus has a conversational style that makes it easy to accept his life story and all the challenging things that happen to him. It reads much like a first-person thriller complete with surprises, narrow escapes and growing-up experiences.
One of the strengths of The Forger is our narrator’s voice. Just like his journey from adolescence into adulthood, his experiences affect his actions and his observations and his personality expands concurrently.
He is an only child and his parents dote on him. His father offers him life-affirming advice which he retains and tries to apply. This is augmented at intervals by other adults he meets or works with. Here is an example: “Schönhaus, your father’s friend is right, but his also wrong. Morality is for people living an orderly life. When you can’t plan for the future, as we can’t now, it’s only the present moment that counts. Of course, there are people who would stick to the straight and narrow even in hell itself. But they are the exceptions. And it’s only after the event that you can tell whether you are one of the exceptions.”
This book is an intimate view of the resistance by some Germans to the Nazis, particularly in Berlin. It details the ingenuity that went into “hiding in plain sight” and “knowing one’s enemy.” If Schönhaus has his naïve moments, much of that is mixed with hope: “We agreed on one idea: in our diminishingly small world the kind of original Christianity that Leo Tolstoy wrote about should be compulsory for the whole of humanity. And once there was no longer any distinction between Christians and Jews, anti-Semitism would automatically vanish.”
By the time this account ends, Schönhaus has helped many, many Jews and others avoid Nazi imprisonment and death. He is more lucky than careful but eventually escapes himself and lives in his adopted country until his death in 2015. This is a book that will entertain and enlighten with its details of life in Berlin during the Nazi era.
January 6, 2023
He deserves every bit praise for what he did and the risks took to do it. Also, for being most candid in recollections, most especially of his sexual encounters.
Some of our residents tell stories, they say of people they knew: most, all, would have been too young during the war, so I think it is likely they are being honest: unless of course they were 'at it' when 15 and 16 years old.
They say, people threw caution to the wind and the countryside was less populated. The hay fields and the barns were witness to much.
Mr Schönhaus is a very clever man: and brave.
I did so enjoy this, I felt as if he was talking to me for most of the time. It is a personal account.
Some of our residents tell stories, they say of people they knew: most, all, would have been too young during the war, so I think it is likely they are being honest: unless of course they were 'at it' when 15 and 16 years old.
They say, people threw caution to the wind and the countryside was less populated. The hay fields and the barns were witness to much.
Mr Schönhaus is a very clever man: and brave.
I did so enjoy this, I felt as if he was talking to me for most of the time. It is a personal account.
May 1, 2025
An incredible story. A young man. They say there can be times in a young person's life when they do see themselves as bullet proof. There is a fine line between courage and reckless. I'm amazed he survived. A hero.
November 30, 2022
I read this some years ago: the discussion, I think kicked off by Gisela [the pick-up and run passport, mentioned in the book, ‘A Chosen Path’] prompted me to take another look.
Living and working in Berlin, during the second war, a graphic artist becomes a forger: with genuine stamps as reference and the clever use of inks he is able to reproduce the stamps needed for forged identities allowing many to escape the Nazi death camps.
At one point the forger provides himself with a passbook containing many stamps over a long period of time, giving the book authenticity. The expertise spoken of here show how these lessons were carried forward: even today ’forgers’ are provided with genuine entry and exit stamps and use their skills to make stamps and inks that allow passports that have never left the country to show a history of travel and thus provide authentication for the passport.
The is a good message for all interested in such things: with the skills it's possible, but, and it's a BIG BUT, showing a history, usage, is as important, if not more important, than a good quality product.
A first hand account and I’d say not shy of telling it all: worts and all.
A young man with a young man’s head: absentminded, and naive and guilty of daydreaming, fantasying, forgetfulness. It makes for an engaging read.
It was nothing but luck, as he readily admits, that saw him through it.
Living and working in Berlin, during the second war, a graphic artist becomes a forger: with genuine stamps as reference and the clever use of inks he is able to reproduce the stamps needed for forged identities allowing many to escape the Nazi death camps.
At one point the forger provides himself with a passbook containing many stamps over a long period of time, giving the book authenticity. The expertise spoken of here show how these lessons were carried forward: even today ’forgers’ are provided with genuine entry and exit stamps and use their skills to make stamps and inks that allow passports that have never left the country to show a history of travel and thus provide authentication for the passport.
The is a good message for all interested in such things: with the skills it's possible, but, and it's a BIG BUT, showing a history, usage, is as important, if not more important, than a good quality product.
A first hand account and I’d say not shy of telling it all: worts and all.
A young man with a young man’s head: absentminded, and naive and guilty of daydreaming, fantasying, forgetfulness. It makes for an engaging read.
It was nothing but luck, as he readily admits, that saw him through it.
May 9, 2024
The tale of a young, foolhardy at times, brave man.
I can excuse the temptations that he succumbed to: when you're living a life that might see you inside a Gestapo prison cell come tomorrow, make the most of today.
A great read.
I can excuse the temptations that he succumbed to: when you're living a life that might see you inside a Gestapo prison cell come tomorrow, make the most of today.
A great read.
February 3, 2019
A remarkable memoir about life on the run as a jew in Berlin during the Nazi regime
June 15, 2025
A young man. Naive, I would say. By happenstance more than anything found himself in a position where his knowledge, his access and his skills might just help the more unfortunate. He didn't have to do what he did. And, he did well.
If I had been around at the time and knew what he was up to, I'd have jumped into bed with him without a moment's hesitation.
This world needs people like him.
If I had been around at the time and knew what he was up to, I'd have jumped into bed with him without a moment's hesitation.
This world needs people like him.
March 1, 2013
Definitely not your typical Holocaust survival book which is, more often than not, an emotional and heartbreaking account of inhumane treatment and tragic loss of family and friends. "The Forger" breaks the mold and although this is a book about a Holocaust survivor, the memoir is that of a courageous and ingenious twenty-year-old graphic artist who channeled his talents and created forged documents to help hundreds of Jews escape Berlin. He risked his life and those who collaborated with him to procure the materials necessary to replicate quality documents that allowed safe passage and escape from the Nazis in Berlin. The writer has a very witty and clever personality and his exploits, while extremely dangerous, are recounted with such flair and intrigue that you admire him all the more for the things he did. Even when placed on the Gestapo's most wanted list, the author was quick enough on his feet to talk his way out of arrest as well as speak out and defend other Jewish people whom he witnessed being harassed by the Gestapo. The way of life for those who lived in Berlin is portrayed with an insight that is not written about as often. Here is the author's preface to his memoir, which is what convinced me to read the book:
"My survival is the result of events in which the 'law of large numbers' played the major part.
If the parquet floor of a large room had a hole in it the size of a fist, and somebody tried to land a pea in this hole, his chances of success would be minimal.
But if you took a sackful of peas and tipped them out on the floor, the hole would be filled immediately.
Like mine, the story of every pea that ended up in the hole would then consist of a series of miraculous coincidences. I an one of those lucky peas."- Cioma Schonhaus
Schonhaus doesn't spend time conveying the misery and the pain he obviously endured while moving from house to house carrying out his clandestine activities underground. Instead, he relays with joy the encounters he had where he was able to outsmart the Nazis and carry out his work to secure safe passage for others, just days and hours away from being deport to a concentration camp. When finally forced to flee Berlin and bicycle to Switzerland, his journey is successful due to one lucky coincidence after another. A great example of someone with a heart of gold, nerves of steel and tenacity to never stop when doing what's right or what is necessary to help others.
"My survival is the result of events in which the 'law of large numbers' played the major part.
If the parquet floor of a large room had a hole in it the size of a fist, and somebody tried to land a pea in this hole, his chances of success would be minimal.
But if you took a sackful of peas and tipped them out on the floor, the hole would be filled immediately.
Like mine, the story of every pea that ended up in the hole would then consist of a series of miraculous coincidences. I an one of those lucky peas."- Cioma Schonhaus
Schonhaus doesn't spend time conveying the misery and the pain he obviously endured while moving from house to house carrying out his clandestine activities underground. Instead, he relays with joy the encounters he had where he was able to outsmart the Nazis and carry out his work to secure safe passage for others, just days and hours away from being deport to a concentration camp. When finally forced to flee Berlin and bicycle to Switzerland, his journey is successful due to one lucky coincidence after another. A great example of someone with a heart of gold, nerves of steel and tenacity to never stop when doing what's right or what is necessary to help others.
May 12, 2009
This is not the greatest work of literature, but, boy, is it a great story. The writing kind of jumps around, and it's not always very clear when one scene changes to the next, but the tale of this young man hiding out in Berlin and forging documents is fascinating. He takes crazy risks but always manages to be elsewhere when they're looking for him, and finally makes his way into Switzerland, stopping on the way to forge one last document.
January 21, 2020
This riveting memoir was like reading a spy novel with constant action and clever avoidance of the Nazis. Schonhaus was a young Jew living in Berlin during Hitler’s reign who tried everything to avoid being sent to “the East” (concentration camps) like his parents and grandmother. Once he went completely underground in Berlin, he began forging ID papers for Jews and others who were also hiding from the Nazis. He worked with other underground Jews and a network of Christians opposed to Hitler’s treatment of Christianity and Jews. He was incredibly lucky: always being missed by the SS when others were being arrested, jailed, sent “East”, or executed. Finally he realized relying on luck was not smart and he fled to Switzerland. His account is illustrated by his own sketches, not expert but vivid. The author’s story is astonishing.
January 28, 2011
Roughly written as others have pointed out but the story is amazing and truly inspiring of all the brave people in this book (including the author) who helped the Jewish people during the war... Shows the humanity that existed in characters such as Ludwig and helene etc
March 15, 2024
A man of many talents - not just forging the odd document. And brave.
It never ceases to amaze me how in times such as this some - many - consciously step up to the plate. With no training or guidance in how to survive during such dark times this guy muddled through - and he is most candid in his account of that muddling. Using his skills he escaped the Nazi chokehold. He could, I would wager, have done so years earlier. He didn't. He chose to stay and provide for others.
It never ceases to amaze me how in times such as this some - many - consciously step up to the plate. With no training or guidance in how to survive during such dark times this guy muddled through - and he is most candid in his account of that muddling. Using his skills he escaped the Nazi chokehold. He could, I would wager, have done so years earlier. He didn't. He chose to stay and provide for others.
January 23, 2011
As some other reviews have pointed out, the prose is choppy and at times rough, additionally the tone seems a bit strange. It is unclear, at least to this reader, if it is the translation or the author (the tone being a way to distance himself).
Regardless, it is still a rather good and engrossing read.
Schonhaus was the child of Russian Jews who had emigrated to Berlin. The story starts during 1943, and covers the experience of Schonhaus as he hids at in Berlin, escaping the deportations that took the rest of his family.
Schonhaus was able to forge passes and other docuements, making not only a person who was saved, but a person who did the saving. While he was helped several times, he saved himself by taking risks and sticking to his guns. During his time in Berlin and working with the German Resistance, Schonhaus knows several individuals who will be well known to students of World War II history.
A good read simplely because of the view it presents.
Regardless, it is still a rather good and engrossing read.
Schonhaus was the child of Russian Jews who had emigrated to Berlin. The story starts during 1943, and covers the experience of Schonhaus as he hids at in Berlin, escaping the deportations that took the rest of his family.
Schonhaus was able to forge passes and other docuements, making not only a person who was saved, but a person who did the saving. While he was helped several times, he saved himself by taking risks and sticking to his guns. During his time in Berlin and working with the German Resistance, Schonhaus knows several individuals who will be well known to students of World War II history.
A good read simplely because of the view it presents.
June 17, 2024
Demasiado duro...
June 17, 2020
I read the reviews of this, and I feel like I just have read a different book. This was utter drivel, and so badly written as to be near unintelligible in places. Forced dialogue and a narrative structure in which the structure was nearly entirely absent. I thought to start with it might just be a poor translation but given the way it jumps from one topic to another with no apparent connection I was forced to conclude it is just badly written.
Several times there are references to him being a likeable man but he comes across as cocky, foolhardy and full of himself. He forged a few passes (it may have been more than this, it was really hard to gauge) but on more than one occasion puts himself and everyone he works with at risk and this might add tension, but it doesn’t. For a book about a Jewish forger living under Nazi rule in Berlin there is no tension. There is some over sentimental twaddle about his parents but I couldn’t bring myself to care because when they were with him in Germany he didn’t seem to care. In fact, I couldn’t care less about any one in this memoir because the writing was so tiresome.
The unsentimental approach to danger might have worked if there was any sense of a chronology or description of anything other than a verbal map of Berlin, but even that was lacking.
The only thing about this book that is vaguely worth reading in the postscript- and that isn’t written by the author.
Several times there are references to him being a likeable man but he comes across as cocky, foolhardy and full of himself. He forged a few passes (it may have been more than this, it was really hard to gauge) but on more than one occasion puts himself and everyone he works with at risk and this might add tension, but it doesn’t. For a book about a Jewish forger living under Nazi rule in Berlin there is no tension. There is some over sentimental twaddle about his parents but I couldn’t bring myself to care because when they were with him in Germany he didn’t seem to care. In fact, I couldn’t care less about any one in this memoir because the writing was so tiresome.
The unsentimental approach to danger might have worked if there was any sense of a chronology or description of anything other than a verbal map of Berlin, but even that was lacking.
The only thing about this book that is vaguely worth reading in the postscript- and that isn’t written by the author.
July 8, 2009
"The Forger" is the story of a young German-Jewish boy who finds himself
stranded in Nazi Germany during World War II. Fortunately, he is an artist,and using his skills to become a forger, he is able to create
every kind of official document from ration books to passports. The book
reads more like fiction than biography since we are constantly going from
great danger to relative safety and back again. For one who is interested
in personal survival under extremely trying circumatances,he will find
this book a primer in that field. All in all a very exciting,entertaining
and informative read.
stranded in Nazi Germany during World War II. Fortunately, he is an artist,and using his skills to become a forger, he is able to create
every kind of official document from ration books to passports. The book
reads more like fiction than biography since we are constantly going from
great danger to relative safety and back again. For one who is interested
in personal survival under extremely trying circumatances,he will find
this book a primer in that field. All in all a very exciting,entertaining
and informative read.
April 20, 2008
This is a somewhat roughly translated (G>E) autobiography. The author was a Russian Jew living in Berlin during the war. Because of his artistic skills he was able to make his own 'aryan' documents and live as a regular German during the war in Berlin. He served hundreds of fellow Jews, Russians and Gypsies by giving them what appeared to be legitimate documents. He lost his parents to the camps in Poland, but he was finally able to escape to Switerland, via bicycle, in the yawning days of the war. He still lives in Basel, Switzerland today.
February 3, 2009
really interesting insight into how jews were able to survive in the underground in Berlin during WWll.
very matter-of-fact writing, a lot of detail as to the how-to of forging documents, the autor's survival tactics,and what kind of resources he was able to draw upon.
Schoenhaus describes the terrible fate of his own family very simply & starkly-he might seem to some unemotional. His mental strength allowed him to carry own & survive.
A remarkable and enjoyable memoir in a grim setting,ultimately very rewarding
very matter-of-fact writing, a lot of detail as to the how-to of forging documents, the autor's survival tactics,and what kind of resources he was able to draw upon.
Schoenhaus describes the terrible fate of his own family very simply & starkly-he might seem to some unemotional. His mental strength allowed him to carry own & survive.
A remarkable and enjoyable memoir in a grim setting,ultimately very rewarding
October 26, 2009
This true holocaust story is quite arresting: after Cioma's parents and sister are taken off to the death camps from their home in Berlin, Cioma succeeds in staying alive by using his wits. A talented artist, he also helps others by forging Nazi stamps on false identity documents and food rationing books for a network that helped Jews escape the Nazis. The book is an engaging account, but be warned that Cioma is frank about his sexual adventures and how sex also helped keep him alive.
March 26, 2012
I wanted so much more. I feel that he had an incredible story to tell but I never connected with anyone, not even him. He seemed to me like a cocky and irresponsible kid who didn't appreciate the good that he was doing. I felt like I was reading his diary with many disjointed incidents strung together. At the end of the book when he named the people in his story and what happened to them I realized that I remembered very few of them.
April 14, 2008
This was a different kind of book than others I've read about Jews in WWII. Since he avoided the concentration camps it was a bit more mild, although still portraying the unbelievable inhumanity they were treated with. This is how I like history books, the story of an individual.
September 19, 2014
This was a fabulous book about life in Berlin in Nazi Germany, from the point of view of a survivor who evaded capture and deportation. A bit of light in a dark time. A bit hard to read until you got used to the writing style. Might have been the translation.
December 14, 2022
Siempre me parece interesante conocer las vivencias de esa gente que consiguió superar los obstáculos de la vida, y en este caso me ha ocurrido lo mismo, me ha parecido interesante saber más de cómo tenían que jugarse el pellejo los judíos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial para que no terminaran con sus vidas.
Este libro abarca unas 250pg de historia, quizás por eso no puedo pedir gran desarrollo, eso es lo que he echado en falta, profundidad, no sentir que pasábamos por los sucesos como por un esquema. Cierto es que muchas veces me he visto dentro de la historia que nos contaba Cioma, pero otras tantas me costaba.
Conoció a personas que le ayudaron desinteresadamente, otras que hicieron que el provecho fuera mutuo, gente que podría no haber dado asilo a Cioma y, sabiendo que podía tener consecuencias, aún así lo hizo... He visto tanto hombres como mujeres valientes y con agallas. También vemos cómo Cioma echa valor desde los 19 años, cómo tuvo siempre claro que el que no arriesga no gana.
Adoro que nombre muchos autores clásicos, siempre que encuentro algo así en las historias, que los personajes (o en este caso, las personas reales) en la historia, leen, se me ilumina la mirada.
A pesar de sentir que pasaba bastante por encima de los acontecimientos a veces, muchas otras me ha hecho sentir que merecía la pena leer esta historia, conocer la verdad de la desgracia que se tuvo que vivir, de cómo la gente apostaba, a todo o nada, si quería vivir.
Si te gusta conocer historias reales, contadas por quien lo vivió, esta es una historia que merece ser conocida, pero he de decir que se nota eso, que es una novela corta, que no fluye a veces tan bien como si se tratara de una persona con más recorrido escribiendo, pero que aún así nos cuenta su verdad, lo que ocurrió y no debemos dejar en el olvido.
Este libro abarca unas 250pg de historia, quizás por eso no puedo pedir gran desarrollo, eso es lo que he echado en falta, profundidad, no sentir que pasábamos por los sucesos como por un esquema. Cierto es que muchas veces me he visto dentro de la historia que nos contaba Cioma, pero otras tantas me costaba.
Conoció a personas que le ayudaron desinteresadamente, otras que hicieron que el provecho fuera mutuo, gente que podría no haber dado asilo a Cioma y, sabiendo que podía tener consecuencias, aún así lo hizo... He visto tanto hombres como mujeres valientes y con agallas. También vemos cómo Cioma echa valor desde los 19 años, cómo tuvo siempre claro que el que no arriesga no gana.
Adoro que nombre muchos autores clásicos, siempre que encuentro algo así en las historias, que los personajes (o en este caso, las personas reales) en la historia, leen, se me ilumina la mirada.
A pesar de sentir que pasaba bastante por encima de los acontecimientos a veces, muchas otras me ha hecho sentir que merecía la pena leer esta historia, conocer la verdad de la desgracia que se tuvo que vivir, de cómo la gente apostaba, a todo o nada, si quería vivir.
Si te gusta conocer historias reales, contadas por quien lo vivió, esta es una historia que merece ser conocida, pero he de decir que se nota eso, que es una novela corta, que no fluye a veces tan bien como si se tratara de una persona con más recorrido escribiendo, pero que aún así nos cuenta su verdad, lo que ocurrió y no debemos dejar en el olvido.
April 20, 2020
Yo sobre nuestro querido y violento siglo XX quiero siempre leerlo todo, por crudo que pueda ser. Soy así de chungo.
"El falsificador de pasaportes" es un libro genial. No sólo unas memorias interesantísimas sobre la difícil, tantas veces vejatoria y casi siempre mortal experiencia de los judíos en la Alemania abiertamente antisemita y genocida. También como libro de aventuras, si se me permite el atrevimiento, funciona como un reloj. ¿Es hipócrita por mi parte juntar el concepto "aventura" con el fondo del Holocausto? Probablemente... Pero si el propio autor y actor de los hechos narrados, Cioma Schönhaus, es el primero que adopta ese tono, no sé si a próposito. auque voluntariamente o no acabe acertanto tanto, qué más puedo hacer yo, salvo reconocérselo...
Desde luego se trata de un texto que, en su desenfadada honestidad, supera con creces a libros vecinos y limítrofes, y desde luego mucho mejor valorados -y sobrevalorados-, como por ejemplo, se me ocurre, el diario repipi de Anna Frank.
Y, seamos francos, lo único que explica el éxito de éste último y el poco predicamento del primero, es que que Anna Frank no sobrevivió al Reich de los Mil años y nuestro querido Cioma sí...
El morbo tiene estas cosas.
"El falsificador de pasaportes" es un libro genial. No sólo unas memorias interesantísimas sobre la difícil, tantas veces vejatoria y casi siempre mortal experiencia de los judíos en la Alemania abiertamente antisemita y genocida. También como libro de aventuras, si se me permite el atrevimiento, funciona como un reloj. ¿Es hipócrita por mi parte juntar el concepto "aventura" con el fondo del Holocausto? Probablemente... Pero si el propio autor y actor de los hechos narrados, Cioma Schönhaus, es el primero que adopta ese tono, no sé si a próposito. auque voluntariamente o no acabe acertanto tanto, qué más puedo hacer yo, salvo reconocérselo...
Desde luego se trata de un texto que, en su desenfadada honestidad, supera con creces a libros vecinos y limítrofes, y desde luego mucho mejor valorados -y sobrevalorados-, como por ejemplo, se me ocurre, el diario repipi de Anna Frank.
Y, seamos francos, lo único que explica el éxito de éste último y el poco predicamento del primero, es que que Anna Frank no sobrevivió al Reich de los Mil años y nuestro querido Cioma sí...
El morbo tiene estas cosas.
June 8, 2015
Memoir of a Jew who survived on his wits in Berlin before making his escape into Switzerland in late 1943. He lived legally as long as he could, using an exemption as a worker in an essential war factory to stay in Berlin while his parents, aunt and uncle, and grandmother were all transported east; none returned.
In his free time, he became the forger of the title, helping Jews to survive and escape with forged papers, until he made his own escape by riding out of Berlin in broad daylight on a bicycle, relying on his brazen ability to bluff his way past danger and on his impeccably forged papers.
His story meanders free-form from incident to anecdote, with many small moments of verisimilitude. As a young man of 19 in 1941, Schonhaus spent much of his time thinking about, looking at, and chasing after women, and found surprising opportunities to consummate affairs with several different women of different ages and walks of life.
His account of leaving his parents at the train station as they headed east to their death is heart-breaking in its quiet matter-of-factness. His father's voice stayed with him and helped him escape some of his tight spots during his life underground in Berlin and then during his final bike ride to safety.
This will never take its place as a great book of Jewish perseverance during the Holocaust, but it should be read by those who treasure the small human triumphs that give us hope.
In his free time, he became the forger of the title, helping Jews to survive and escape with forged papers, until he made his own escape by riding out of Berlin in broad daylight on a bicycle, relying on his brazen ability to bluff his way past danger and on his impeccably forged papers.
His story meanders free-form from incident to anecdote, with many small moments of verisimilitude. As a young man of 19 in 1941, Schonhaus spent much of his time thinking about, looking at, and chasing after women, and found surprising opportunities to consummate affairs with several different women of different ages and walks of life.
His account of leaving his parents at the train station as they headed east to their death is heart-breaking in its quiet matter-of-factness. His father's voice stayed with him and helped him escape some of his tight spots during his life underground in Berlin and then during his final bike ride to safety.
This will never take its place as a great book of Jewish perseverance during the Holocaust, but it should be read by those who treasure the small human triumphs that give us hope.
May 31, 2009
This book transports you to WWII Germany and the fear of living as a Jew waiting to be deported to "work camps". As a 20 year old Cioma was able to put his skills as an artist to use and forge believable papers so if her were stopped he would pass as a non-Jew, hopefully. He had many close calls, which ultimately led him to decide to work his way through Germany to try and escape to Switzerland.
September 17, 2010
I was disappointed in this, a memoir from a Jewish man who was 19 during Hitler's reign & who survived in Berlin by forging documents & living "underground," until he was forced to flee the country. I just found the writing style disconnected & hard to follow. I read about half the book. It would probably be easier to follow in English translation (it's available in paperback as "The Forger: An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin").
November 8, 2013
Although Schonhaus is short on drawing the bigger picture of life in wartime Berlin, his remarkable story of survival reads like an adventure tale, but unlike those fanciful novels, the reader is always aware of the impending doom for the city as the war grinds on and the very deadly consequences for the author's 'characters' should they be found out. The book starts slowly but builds dramatically as the noose closes around Schonhaus' neck.
March 25, 2008
This memoir is excellent first and foremost because of a beautiful translation which I'll assume reflects a beautiful composition in the original German (although I haven't seen the text in German). The context, of course, is tried and true as a drama-ready vivarium, but Schonhaus contributes the adolescent adventurous spirit that make his story singular.
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