Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Escape from the Ghetto

  • The Story of the Jewish Boy Who Ran Away from the Nazis
  • By: John Carr
  • Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
  • Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (46 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Escape from the Ghetto cover art

Escape from the Ghetto

By: John Carr
Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Strength of Hope cover art
The Girl Who Escaped From Auschwitz: cover art
The Girl Who Survived cover art
Into the Forest cover art
I Escaped from Auschwitz cover art
The Children's House of Belsen cover art
The Watchmakers cover art
The Hidden Village cover art
The Long Night cover art
The Red Ribbon cover art
Inside the Gas Chambers cover art
The Violinist of Auschwitz cover art
The White Rose Network cover art
Emilia cover art
The Pharmacist of Auschwitz cover art
I Am Juden cover art

Summary

A Jewish boy kills a Nazi by the Polish ghetto. He must escape the Third Reich at all costs.

The captivating true story of one boy's flight across Europe to escape the Nazis. A tale of extraordinary courage, incredible adventure and the relentless pursuit of life in the face of impossible challenges. 

In early 1940, Chaim Herzsman was locked in to the Lódz Ghetto in Poland. Hungry, fearless and determined, he goes on scavenging missions outside the wire limits, until he is forced to kill a Nazi guard. That moment changes the course of his life and sets him on an unbelievable adventure across enemy lines.

Chaim avoids grenades and rifle fire on the Russian border, shelters with a German family in the Rhineland, falls in love in occupied France, is captured on a mountain pass in Spain, gets interrogated as a potential Nazi spy in Britain and eventually fights for everything he believes in as part of the British Army. He protects his life by posing as an Aryan boy with a crucifix around his neck and fights for his life through terrible and astonishing circumstances. 

Escape from the Ghetto is about a normal boy who faced extermination by the Nazis in the ghetto or a Nazi deathcamp and the extraordinary life he led in avoiding that fate. It's a bittersweet story about epic hope, beauty amidst horror and the triumph of the human spirit.

John Carr is Henry Carr's eldest son, and in Escape from the Ghetto he has re-created his father's incredible adventure through recordings and transcribed conversations in later life.

For fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Saboteur of Auschwitz and The Volunteer, this is the incredible true story of escape from the Nazis during World War II.

©2021 John Carr (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Trust me, this is a great true story." (Ken Follett)

"This is an unbelievable story that is all completely true. The life described is astonishing. John Carr has done an extraordinary and riveting job uncovering the real father behind the dad he thought he knew." (Lord Tony Hall)

"Utterly Compelling. It is an extraordinary tale, brilliantly written." (Alastair Stewart)

What listeners say about Escape from the Ghetto

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    39
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    35
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    37
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

couldn't stop listening

What a life! Well written and we'll read. can't recommend enough - I couldn't stop listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Heartbreaking, thrilling, puts things into perspective.

Very well read, and what a remarkable person he must have been! And the horrors of what he went through.
Many years, made me smile because of some great humour, but most of all, incredible human emotion and the ability to observe people and temperament, I really got a feel for him, well I like to think I did.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

The narrator was great ,the book is an amazing story,cmon Spielberg would make a great film

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intriguing story

The book is well read story about a Jewish Polish boy’s escape from Nazis and the highly convoluted passage that took him through his early life to safety. The hair raising events were all really quite interesting and in some cases extraordinary.
The book is written more in a form of a diary. And for that reason it does not really contain the creative exaggerations that sometimes make stories a bit more exciting.
It is an unique view of a jews”’s life during ww2 and after.


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Extraordinary story

Extraordinary story:good mixture of the personal, the political with a small ‘p’ and moving account of the concealment and ultimate revelation of Jewish identity. Brilliantly related

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great read

A story of courage, determination, bravery and the right to survive against unimaginable evil in Germany and her conquered lands of the 1930s and 1940s. This is a man with indomitable steadfastness who is resolved to survive through intelligence, sheer will and intuitiveness. What a man.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful story

I thoroughly enjoyed this amazing story of courage and determination to get away from the awful life that the Jews had to endure

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible story of survival against the odds

Very powerful and moving story of a boy's escape from the Lodz ghetto and his journey across Nazi occupied Europe. Very well told by the narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

What a truly amazing story. I could not stop listening
Absolutely remarkable brave account

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Escape from horror

Reading this book was beyond sadness the tenacity that Mr Hirschman went through from the age of 13 years was indescribably mind bending. The narration by his son John Carr made me feel every step of the journey that young aryan looking jew had to do in order to survive. Thank you Mr Carr. Rest in peace Mr Hirschman.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!