Holocaust Survivor/Liberator
O.S.S.
Operative in Paris, France
U.S. Army Counter
Intelligence Corps Agent
U.S. Army
Veteran WWII
The exhilarating
autobiography of a Dutch high school student who outsmarted and outran the
Nazis ten times. Involved with espionage in France, he miraculously lands in America and returns to Europe as a
U.S. Counter Intelligence agent bringing his enemies to justice.
Shy, fifteen year-old
Jack Boeki and his family survive the Rotterdam bombings after Germany invades
Holland May 10, 1940. After a transition period, mounting restrictions on Jews
are imposed and Jack and goes into hiding. The family he is with warns him that
it has become too dangerous and he takes off to avoid capture.
Jack is eventually able to obtain a fake ID card with the help of his
girlfriend, Ester. While travelling on an Amsterdam streetcar, Jack is
apprehended in question of his forged papers, escorted off the streetcar and
escapes from his overcoat, severely maiming his Dutch Nazi captor. As he’s
running away he hears someone on their bike ride up behind him and just as he
thinks he’s getting caught – they yell for him to take the bicycle and escape.
Desperate to avoid capture, Jack seeks refuge at an
apartment that his parents had rented, but when he awakens there’s a pistol
pointed at his head, his safe haven has been betrayed – in a bolt, he manages
to flee down three flights of stairs to safety.
Eventually, all his
hiding places are betrayed and he’s on the run. He becomes a fugitive, hunted
like an animal, staying one step ahead of the Nazis by any means necessary. Jack
is finally caught and put on a transport train headed to a death camp. When the
train stops in Amsterdam, Jack seizes an opportunity for escape and
orchestrates his get-away. Disappearing into
the red-light district, he disguises himself as a young girl walking amongst
the prostitutes.
When he returns to Rotterdam, there is nowhere left
for him to hide. His girlfriend, Esther uses her underground connections to get
him better false papers to help him flee Holland. With his heart in his throat,
and armed with his new false identity, he bravely boards a train full of German
soldiers on their way to occupied France.
Friends find Jack a job as a laborer on a farm on the
southern outskirts of Paris where he is somewhat safe from discovery. While
working on the farm, Jack is secretly summoned to meet ‘Claude,’ a US Office of Strategic Services operative, (C.I.A
precursor) hiding in a dried-out well. Claude needs to re-establish lines of
communication with resistance fighters since the previous network had been
infiltrated and most members executed. Jack is excited to help and agrees to
take on the deadly mission of smuggling a radio transmitter to Claude which would enable him to re-connect with a new undercover network to
help Allied pilots return to their bases in England.
The mission is a success but they soon receive information that the SS is hot on their trail. They devise a plot to try to keep Claude and his hiding place from being
discovered. When hundreds of SS soldiers
descend on their small farm in the middle of the night to raid it – amazingly
the plan works, leaving the enemy empty-handed. Things move quickly after the close call and Jack experiences a final escape
that completely changes his destiny and miraculously
lands him in the United States of America.
Jack’s ultimate plan is to enlist in the US Armed
forces to become a fighter
pilot and he is sent to Fort
Benning in Georgia for basic training. His proficiency in several languages and
knowledge of the European underground resistance results in Jack being
recruited instead by US Army Intelligence.
In March 1944, as the liberation of occupied Europe
draws near, Jack’s unit, is ordered to England. Now an agent of the Counter
Intelligence Corps (CIC), he has received special training to uncover war criminals and will soon put his skills to
use on his most important mission yet. On June 8, just two days after the
initial D-Day landings, Jack’s team of agents land on Utah Beach in Normandy, France.
Jack’s unit follows the US advance fighting forces that liberate
France, Belgium and Luxemburg – liberating camps and arresting spies, collaborators and anyone posing a threat to
the Allies. The once timid schoolboy, now a fierce mass interrogator, is instrumental in ferreting out many
high-ranking Nazis, Gestapo agents, and other war criminals. When WWII
ends in May 1945, Jack and his unit are assigned to the security force at the
Nuremberg War Crimes trials.
Jack returns to Holland a few years later, only to
learn that entire generations of his family were murdered in the Sobibor death
camp. He is completely alone in the world. Soon after, he leaves for Canada to
start a new life and create his own family. Jack wrote his memoir to share his
moving story of hope, bravery and perseverance against all odds. Today, he is a
sprite 91 year-old.
Jack has been invited to give talks about his experience, if you would like to book him for speaking engagements, please contact: jam.boeki@gmail.com
Jack is currently seeking a literary agent or book publisher, if you are interested please contact:
anna_lea@hotmail.com or jam.boeki@gmail.com
