The true coming-of-age story set against the rise of fascism, the collapse of democracy in Slovakia and Hungary, the attempted genocide of the Jewish people, and the eventual conquest of the Allied Forces over Nazi Germany, ESCAPE TO THE TATRAS - A BOY, A WAR AND A LIFE INTERRUPTED tells the story of one child's remarkable journey encompassing the essence of life before and throughout World War II. During the terrifying years of deprivation, deportation, and imprisonment of Jews, many of whom were sent off toNazi labor and extermination camps, the Staub family (mother Irene, father Frici, and their young son Oskar), citizens of Presov, Slovakia, fled for their lives in order to hide from the brutal Slovakian forces and their German operatives.Young Osi, who witnessed it all, found the courage and resiliency to cope with challenges far beyond his years. Written seven decades later with the precision of unfailing memory and the pain of personal experience, Oscar (Osi) (Staub) Sladek tells an unforgettable story of resilience and personal triumph. - "Oscar Sladek writes, 'I was too young' - too young to be confronted with the horrors of the Holocaust and the brutal costs of escape. But, as this extraordinary account shows, young Oscar already had an unfailing eye for the perennial truths of human courage, compassion, and the power of faith. He was not too young to stand upright in the center of a rare heroism, with his beloved Anyu and Apu, accumulating experience that would shape the moral imagination that makes this book a masterpiece of love and survival." - JAMES CARROLL (Winner of the National Book Award, An American Requiem; Winner of the National Jewish Book Award, Constantine's Sword)