Marc H. Stevens was born in eastern
Canada in the late 1950's and grew up between Ottawa and
Toronto.
He had learned, as a boy, that his father
had been a highly-decorated bomber pilot in the war, and
that as a POW, his father had escaped several times. He
even knew, vaguely, that his father had been born in
Germany, but he was sworn to secrecy on that matter, in
order to help his father maintain his false legend.
Marc was led to believe that his father
had been born to Christian parents, and that his widowed
grandmother had sent her 3 children to England before the
war, simply because she disliked political developments in
Germany.
In the mid-1980's, some 7 years after his
father's death, Marc got curious about what exactly his
father had done to be awarded the Military Cross (a very
important British medal for bravery). Beginning an 18-year
odyssey of discovery, Marc retraced his father's footsteps
from Germany, to England, to Holland and finally to Poland.
At the beginning of this lengthy voyage, Marc had no
intention of writing a book, he just wanted to know more
about his father's wartime exploits. Over the course of
nearly two decades of research, an amazing story emerged,
one that simply had to be told.
In 1996, Marc finally ascertained the
truth about whispered rumours of his father actually being
born Jewish. He tracked down his father's elderly spinster
sister in London, and called her after having no contact for
34 years. She confirmed the family's heritage, and
subsequently that some 10-15 members of the family had been
lost in the Holocaust.
Peter Stevens Sr., kept the identity he
had stolen in 1939 until the day he died. His son Marc is
immensely proud of his father's unheralded fortitude and
courage.
