The Test of Courage: A Biography of Michel Thomas

A biography of Thomas, born Moniek Kroskof in Łódź, 1914; he grew up in Breslau. In 1933 he moved to France, where he studied at the University in Bordeaux. In 1937 he left to study in Vienna, but returned to France in October 1938 and settled in Nice. He was arrested in October 1940 and charged with "influence peddling" for money (i.e. helping Jews and foreigners get through bureaucratic red tape). He was jailed for four months, released, and rearrested in 1941. Thomas was interned in the camps Le Vernet, Les Milles, Gardanne, Les Milles again, Les Mées, and once again Les Milles. In September 1942 he escaped and joined the Résistance, operating mainly in Grenoble. In March 1943 he was arrested in Lyon by the Milice and charged with black-marketeering. Released on parole, thanks to help from the Résistance, he became head of the resistance Group Biviers in the French Alps. After the liberation, he worked for U.S. Army Counterintelligence (CIC) in Germany, interrogating Nazi war criminals. Relates how the CIC recruited Nazis to work as intelligence agents against the Soviet Union. Disillusioned, he quit the CIC and emigrated to the U.S. in July 1947. He developed a special method for teaching foreign languages, and became well-known in this field.