In August 1950 Mihai Vulpe and his best friend, both second-year medical students, decided to risk their lives to escape totalitarianism and certain death in a Russian/Romanian work camp. They chiseled a hole in a brick wall, scrambled through it, then dove into a sewer passing under patrolled railway tracks. The slithered into the Danube, then swam across the river under gunboats' fire to reach Yugoslavia. They survived three imprisonments interrogation and torture. American foreign policy facilitated his release from prison. From Yugoslavia, he escaped to France finally immigrating to Canada.

A MEMOIR OF ESCAPE is his firsthand account of his early life in Arad, Romania, his escape to Yugoslavia and pursuit of freedom to North America. He was my husband for 48 years. He began writing his history at 78 and died at 86 before completing it. I organized and finished his life story then edited our work. His vivid account reveals life under totalitarianism, and how private citizens thwart these governments with individual acts of courage. The account reveals how countries' policies and they're residents enable refugees to become productive citizens. His story gives insight into the world's current refugee crisis.