E.s Kraay

The Hamsa E.s Kraay

"They can take everything you own, everything you cherish and hold dear, but they cannot take your dignity unless you let them. There is a light in the heart of darkness." - The Hamsa. Bronislaw Czech is a dashing Polish highlander born in 1908. His father teaches young Bronek the secrets of the Tatra Mountains while his father's friend, 'The Captain' teaches the boy to ski. He learns well and represents Poland in three Winter Olympic Games, which teach him as much about life as about the sport he loves. He is honored to lead his team and carry the Polish flag into the stadium at Germany's 1936 games in Bavaria. With him always is the hamsa, a good luck charm he receives as a boy in 1923 from a young Jewish girl. When Germany invades Poland in 1939, Czech's mountain skills make him a valuable asset to the Polish resistance and a target for Hitler's SS. From the majesty of Europe's greatest mountains to the shores of America and back, from the height of Olympic glory to the depths of human cruelty and suffering, The Hamsa spans four decades of one man's struggle to preserve his dignity in the face of 'the final solution.'