| Event type: | u3a Monthly Meeting |
| Date: | Wednesday 13th January 2027 |
| Time: | 10:00 am - 12:00 pm |
| Venue: | Dronfield Civic Hall |
| Organiser: |
On the night of 30 September 1938, Harry Lewy flees for his life.
At the stroke of a pen, Czechoslovakia’s border region has switched from comfortable home to dangerous place for any Jew – which includes Harry. By agreement with the Allied powers of Britain and France, Adolf Hitler’s Germany is taking over the Sudetenland and Harry must escape.
Flight from Prague – the Making of a Refugee – tells how Harry, a German-speaker, is forced to abandon everything in his previously secure world to escape persecution. Forced to lie low with soldiers taking increasing control of the streets, he seeks to make his way covertly out of Czechoslovakia.
Fear, uncertainty and danger accompany him on the perilous journey across Europe – across the heart of Nazi Germany – in search of sanctuary. Ultimately, he finds himself in a new state: isolated and vulnerable, penniless and unwanted. Like others fleeing war and disaster, he has been stripped of his position, his dignity and his identity. This story tells one refugee’s flight from fear towards a new life.
Michael Lewis was born and grew up in Belfast. His father was a refugee from Czechoslovakia, his mother, a Holocaust survivor.
After reading Modern Languages at Oxford, he trained as a teacher at York University and taught in comprehensive schools in England for 35 years. For twenty years he was the headteacher of King Edward VII School in Sheffield.
After retirement in 2008, he took on a variety of roles, including as a member of the Employment Tribunal, the Independent Ethics Panel of South Yorkshire Police and the Teaching Regulation Agency’s professional conduct panel. In 2009 the University of Sheffield awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters.
In 1979 he married Petra, also a teacher. They have lived in Sheffield since 1988 and have two adult sons and three grandchildren.
September 2025 saw the publication of Flight from Prague, the Making of a Refugee (Haythorp Books), available for £13.99 (cash or cheque only please) from the author.
What they say about the book...
“Michael Lewis captures perfectly the mix of terror, determination and sheer exhaustion that his Jewish father experienced as he fled for his life from his Czechoslavakian homeland, eventually crossing Nazi Germany to safety in Belfast shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. While it is the unique story of one refugee who loses everything, risks everything and starts again in a foreign country, it will surely help us understand better the plight of those who continue to make such perilous journeys in our own time, and perhaps deepen our compassion for them as well.” — The Revd Canon Alan Billings
“Harry’s story is richly informative about historical events that should never be forgotten. At the same time, its human details engage our current predicament. It narrates an individual as we hope they would be treated in law and policy – not labelled as ‘refugee’, ‘asylum seeker’ or ‘migrant’, but recognised as a person with dignity, needs and rights.” — John Birtwhistle
“Harry’s story is a compelling account of an ordinary life falling apart as his world is turned upside down by forces beyond his control. Michael Lewis gives us a deeply personal insight into the Nazi persecution of our continent’s Jewish population, and a timely reminder of how it feels to be a refugee.” — Paul Blomfield, Former MP for Sheffield Central
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