Two Wheels to Freedom

The extraordinary true story of a young Jewish art student who not just survived but resisted and saved hundred of lives—all while retaining his infectious zeal for life.

Though Cioma Schönhaus was only 11 years old when the Nazis first came to power, his cleverness and resourcefulness eventually made him an unlikely hero and bon vivant. As a young adult staying one step ahead of the S.S., Cioma would dine in swanky restaurants and frequent trendy bars and have plenty of romances—all while sabotaging weapons in the munitions factory where he worked. He even bought a sailboat and taught himself how to sail.

These hijinks never distracted Cioma from a deeper mission. Trained as an artist, Cioma’s masterfully forged fake ID’s ensured that several hundred Jews survived the war. When he learned the Gestapo was closing in on him, Cioma masterminded a singularly daring escape: spending a month biking to Switzerland, he became the only person to cycle his way out of the Third Reich.

Beautifully written and deeply satisfying, Two Wheels to Freedom is a story of survival and resistance unlike any other. Arthur J. Magida captures Cioma’s exuberance, charm, spunk, and courage. His was a life lived with wonderment, one that the author sets seamlessly against the horrors of history while never losing sight of Cioma’s “wily ways, his zest for life, and his appetite for improbable adventures—all of them delighting in the magic that’s beyond the ordinary and the staid.” Two Wheels to Freedom is an exhilarating read that by turns illuminates and inspires.

“A Jewish art student trapped in Berlin during WWII maintains a brazen, outgoing social life while secretly combating the Nazi regime in this surprising and propulsive tale. In Magida’s winsome portrait, Schönhaus’s indomitable spirit and absolute calm under astonishing pressure make for riveting reading. It’s unputdownable.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review