He begins by describing his unusual childhood and the devastating Yokohama earthquake in 1923. In 1930 the family settled in Warsaw, Poland. However they became split up when Poland became overrun by the Nazis and the Russians in 1939. Whilst his father and older brother were in England, Tom found himself trapped in the Russian-occupied part of the country and, after several agonizing months, eventually made his way to Warsaw where his mother had managed to survive the bombing of the city. He vividly describes life under both regimes, as well as the cat-and-mouse game his mother was forced to play with the Gestapo in order to avoid arrest. Later, both became deeply involved with the sheltering of escaped British prisoners of war and it was this activity which led to his capture and imprisonment in a jail in Krakow. Miraculously released after eighteen months captivity, largely due to his command of the Polish language, he vowed to escape to Britain at all cost.Later in the war and after many harrowing experiences he succeeded in getting through to the Red Army, but was again faced with hostility, suspicion and imprisonment. Held for several months in primitive conditions, he, along with two British companions was finally taken to Moscow and handed over to the British Military Mission there. Arriving in Scotland with a convoy of supply ships late in December 1944, he had the galling experience of spending a night in Brixton Prison. With nowhere to go he then began a frantic search for his father and brother, who were convinced that he was dead. His dream came true, but even after the ending of hostilities and later in time, tragedy struck with the news of his mother’s arrest by the Polish Communist authorities. Sentenced to death for alleged espionage, she spent several years in prison, being freed in a Government amnesty and arriving in England in 1956.

    There is a light in the heart of darkness." - The Hamsa. Bronislaw Czech is a dashing Polish highlander born in 1908. His father teaches young Bronek the secrets of the Tatra Mountains while his father's friend, 'The Captain' teaches the boy to ski. He learns well and represents Poland in three Winter Olympic Games, which teach him as much about life as about the sport he loves. He is honored to lead his team and carry the Polish flag into the stadium at Germany's 1936 games in Bavaria. With him always is the hamsa, a good luck charm he receives as a boy in 1923 from a young Jewish girl. When Germany invades Poland in 1939, Czech's mountain skills make him a valuable asset to the Polish resistance and a target for Hitler's SS. From the majesty of Europe's greatest mountains to the shores of America and back, from the height of Olympic glory to the depths of human cruelty and suffering, The Hamsa spans four decades of one man's struggle to preserve his dignity in the face of 'the final solution.'