Ajijic resident Jack Prins was the guest of honor at a book-signing party in Rancho del Oro this week, reading from (and signing copies of) his autobiography “One Step Ahead.”
A retired engineer and computer statistics expert, his early childhood was an all-too-real wartime adventure.
Living in Holland in May, 1941, a young child of a Jewish family – his father a musician and his mother a former ballet dancer – Prins was an eyewitness to the German bombing of Rotterdam, followed by the first German paratroopers as the invasion of Holland began.
Over the next few days, the city was completely flattened by intensive bombing. Prins, living with a friend’s family in the suburbs for safety, had no idea if his parents and brother, who lived in the center of town, had survived the bombing or not.
For the next four years, as persecution and violence against Jews increased dramatically across Europe, Prins raced to outrun the Nazi invaders targeting Jews – sometimes, as the book’s title suggests, just one step ahead. The book also details his later travels and adventures in Israel and in America. It’s now available on Amazon.
The signing party drew dozens out to host Blair Ferguson’s Rancho del Oro home, and Prins, accompanied by his wife Marguerite Ponder, read several passages from the book and signed copies.