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You might approach this memoir with some caution and there is horror here but Cioma's attitude is one of optimism and this gets him through many difficult situations. He is a young Jewish man in Berlin during the Second World War and his skill as a graphic artist leads him to forging the stamps on passes and ID. He paints of a picture of a Berlin where almost no one supports the Nazi cause and the willingness to work together and trust is heartening. Cioma gives us a light brush on the cruelty of the Nazi regime, not dwelling on the terror but on the camaraderie and the good people he works with. This all makes this an uplifting read that doesn't give lots of depth but is an interesting addition to a period that is well documented. ( )

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 and his entire morally-bankrupt Klan.

This book is completely different. 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 invented political bunkum. 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.

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.

Eventually, Cioma cycles and then swims to freedom in Switzerland, where he lives to this day, a graphic artist.

For a completely different and very enjoyable look at this dark period of history, I can't recommend this highly enough.

5-stars with a bullet!

rewritten May 26th, 2011. ( )

This is a memoir of Cioma Schonhaus, covering the years when he was a young Jewish man in Berlin in World War 2. It is well written, not very long, and a gripping read.

Schonhaus loves life, has an optimistic spirit, readily takes risks, and enjoys the thrill of doing so. The extreme tragedies in his life and the lives of others that were caused by the Nazi persecution of Jews could easily have crushed him. He lost his parents, relatives, and friends to the Holocaust. But his indomitable spirit bounced back from every oppressive happening, leading him to find creative ways to survive. He recounts his hair-raising adventures with a wonderful eye for their comic and incongruous aspects, which seems to buoy his optimism.

At first he gained official exemption from the death camps by finding skilled work in an armaments factory. But when this situation becomes unsafe, he is forced to go underground in Berlin, depending on the willingness of others to conspire with him. Meanwhile, he uses his training and skills as a graphics artist to forge documents that help Jews escape extermination. In this work Schonhaus was used by a small, clandestine group within the Confessing Church I had not known about before.

With the Gestapo on his tail at last, Schonhaus decided to flee south to Switzerland by bicycle. His church contacts and good friends helped him in making his escape from Germany, but his wit and incredible luck were with him all the way. These memoirs would make a marvelous film.

I wish Schonhaus had remembered more characters and escapades to include in this fine work. It shines brightly as if to curse the Nazi depravities. ( )

The Forger
An Extraordinary Story of Survival in Wartime Berlin
Author: Cioma Schonhaus
ISBN: 978-0-306-81770-0 Pages: 220, $15.00, Publication Date: February 2009, Paperback, Memoir/History, Published by Da Capo Press.

When we exclaim that truth is stranger than fiction, it certainly is true in the book entitled The Forger, by Cioma Schonhaus. A gripping story of intrigue emerges from a placid beginning about a boy who grows into a heroic man in Nazi Germany. We soon become enmeshed into how some people survived and the methods they used to accomplish Herculean tasks which would seem impossible to accomplish today.

Schonhaus was an art student before WWII intensified and his studies were stopped by the Third Reich. Events were so chaotic in the early days that his parents were removed from their home and sent to concentration camps without protest. Cioma was able to avoid deportation, and this is his story of survival. Living underground and yet in plain sight, he was able to aid hundreds of Jews by learning how to falsify documents and using talents mastered by him as an art student. Many of the documents he copied and where they came from make this story compelling. Church members would put their documents in collection baskets so they could be altered and used by Schonhaus to create new identities. These pious members would report loss of documents and be issued new replacements, but with the risk of certain death if caught for aiding Jews! None of them knew who the forger was so they could not be forced to turn him in as their only connection was through the church basket.

Cioma tells of dating and eating out at the finest restaurants along with the hierarchy of the Nazi regime. His exploits of being in plain sight come to an abrupt halt when his identity is discovered and posters with his picture are posted all over Berlin. Still he continues his masterful plan after nightfall.

An epic tale of forgery could have been the complete story covered by The Forger, but the captivating tale of his escape to Switzerland on a bicycle makes this even more adventuresome. Cioma with his own forged documents passes many check points and proves he is quite an adept con man as he makes his perilous journey to freedom. This book is a good and worthwhile read. ( )