Herman Zimmerman, a jewish survivor of the Holocaust, remembers walking through the streets of Köln at age 12, clutching his father's hand as the crowd around them hailed Hitler. Soon after, his family was on the run with nothing but a few bundles and no place to go. Always one step ahead of the advancing Germans, splitting up along the way, they made their way across Holland, Belgium and France to final safety in Switzerland. Without rancor or recriminations, but with compassion and humor, Herman Zimmerman describes the daily life of a family of fugitives in cataclysmic times.