The Test of Courage - A Biography of Michel Thomas

London: Century, 1999. A Fine unmarked copy with near Fine dustjacket which is not priceclipped. xi + 402 pages. 33 illustrations. Map endpapers. The story of Michel Thomas reads like a thriller in which adventur and heartbreak combine to produce a unique form of wisdom. Today he teaches languages to ghetto kids, heads of industry and movie stars in a matter of days, regarded as a miracle worker with a magical gift for unlocking the secret powers of the mind. This unique understanding was gained under extreme circumstances. Stateless in Vichy France at the beginning of the Second World War, he was incarcerated and starved in a concentration camp at the foot of the Pyrenees, forced into slave labour in a coal mine in Provence, and avoided being sent to Auschwitz by hiding within the confines of a deportation camp for six weeks. He escaped death to join the Secret Army of the Resistance. He was arrested and interrogated by Klaus Barbie, Butcher of Lyon, whom he deceived into releasing him, and was later re-arrested by the Gestapo and tortured. He held out by entering a psychological state in which he no longer registered pain, surviviving to later rejoin the Resistance. At the end of the war he became a Nazi hunter, working for American Counter Intelligence, posing as a Nazi himself to infiltrate and expose underground networks of the SS. He captured important war criminals and was a witness in the trial of Klaus Barbie. 23. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.