The boy who hid from Nazis in the woods, part 1
Maxwell Smart survived the Holocaust by living in a makeshift bunker on the forest floor.
Maxwell Smart was just 11 years old in 1941 when the Nazis took over his town in eastern Poland. One by one his Jewish family were disappeared or killed, but his mother implored him to run for his life just as she and his sister were being loaded onto a German truck. Using his extraordinary ingenuity he managed to survive in remote woodland for the rest of the war, mostly alone, sleeping in improvised shelters and foraging for food. He eventually met another orphaned Jewish boy in the woods, Janek, whose friendship would come to have a profound impact on Maxwell鈥檚 life.
A feature film based on Maxwell鈥檚 life has been released, it鈥檚 called The Boy in the Woods.
Presenter: Emily Webb
Producers: Edgar Maddicott and Rebecca Vincent
Editor: Munazza Khan
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Maxwell Smart Credit: Courtesy of Maxwell Smart)
Last on
Broadcasts
- Wed 18 Sep 2024 11:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Wed 18 Sep 2024 17:06GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Wed 18 Sep 2024 21:06GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 19 Sep 2024 02:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
Contact Outlook
Info on how we might use your contribution on air
Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary
Step into someone else鈥檚 life and expect the unexpected