DECEMBER 16 • 2021 | 39

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

I

t is 1924. The Soviet Army had drafted
two of the sons of widow Gellis, and
then sent notice that the boys were
dead. She was not going to let the army
get another of her sons. By the time David
Gellis reached draft age at his 16th birth-
day, she had arranged a plan
for him to escape. He would
hide in the concealed closet
in the basement. On that
birthday, when the soldiers
searched, they would find no
trace of David Gellis.
That night, they would post
a guard at the only door to the house, but
she would distract the guard with fresh
meat knishes (the Russian guard would
call them piroshki), and with sympathetic
questions about the guard’s family back
home. Meanwhile, another brother would
give the secret signal and David would
jump out the back window.
Thus, begins A Stitch in Time (available
on Amazon), written by Dr. Michael Gellis
in loving tribute to his father.
David Gellis escaped on foot, then by
train and then by wagon across southern
Poland from Dynov to the home of his
Uncle Sol near Cracow. Uncle Sol greet-
ed him warmly, and David spent a sweet
Shabbos with his family, but he had to keep
running.
Uncle Sol gave him money and train
tickets to the port of Gdansk, at the north
edge of Poland. From there, David had a
chance to try to find work on any ship sail-
ing toward America. His goal, after getting
away from Poland and the Soviet Army,
was to find his older brother, Joseph, who
lived in Flint, Michigan.
But how could David get work on a
ship? What could he do? Well, he already
knew how to sew. His late father, his
mother and his brothers all worked as
tailors and, even at 16, he was an expert

tailor. Fortunately, the purser on the first
ship desperately needed a tailor. David
proved himself an invaluable addition
to the crew, repairing worn uniforms
and torn tablecloths. When a passenger
burned her husband’s new suit, David
did a particularly difficult feat, invis-
ible reweaving, perhaps saving her
marriage and certainly establishing David’s
reputation with the purser.
The ship went from Gdansk to England,
from England to France, from France
to Portugal and Spain, and then across
the ocean to Cuba. At each stop, David
met helpful strangers and resourcefully
learned new skills. On a two-week lay-
over in France, David worked at a factory
making bridal gowns and learned new
tailoring skills. The owner, fortunately,
spoke Yiddish. In Cuba, David found a
Yiddish-speaking factory owner who made
leather goods. David learned new skills
and invented new uses for the scrap leath-
er. He even learned the skills of managing
the factory.
During his years in Cuba, David never
abandoned his plan to get to his brother
in Flint, though the United States had
new immigration laws designed to keep
undocumented immigrants out. In 1927,
David had saved enough money to risk
paying a smuggler to sneak him into the
U.S. Good to his word, the smuggler did
bring him to the surf near the island of Key
West, but then, at gunpoint, sent him over-
board. David did not know how to swim,
but somehow survived to wash up on the
beach.
And the story continues with adventure
after adventure as David went north to
Brooklyn, met the woman who would
become his wife (making him, finally, a
legal immigrant), served in the U.S. Army
during World War II (where he did not get
shipped overseas because his commanding

officer’s
daughter needed a wedding gown).
Eventually, with help from his brother,
David moved his wife and two children to
Flint, where David set up a dry cleaning
and alterations shop.
Michael Gellis tells his father’s story in
chronological order, in the style of a young
adult novel. He shows us the thoughts of
some of the characters and reconstructs
dialogue as it might have occurred. Each
of the 75 chapters takes only a few pages.
In four or five pages, the author takes the
life of David Gellis forward, often from a
difficult situation toward its safe resolution.
At crucial moments, David Gellis meets
helpful strangers. The hero of this story
shows impressive resourcefulness, learning
new skills at a moment’s notice, and
remarkable determination, never losing
sight of the goal, even when he learns that
his family in Poland has been murdered.
Michael Gellis did extensive research
to prepare to tell his father’s story.
Interviewing his father’s friends and
relatives, the author establishes the exact
dates of all sorts of events. Researching
the realities behind the story, the author
has his characters explain aspects of the
politics of interwar Europe, as well as
how to sew with satin and how to set up a
steam-press.
This is the life story of one man, but
it parallels the stories of millions of
Jewish people who tried to escape from
increasingly hostile Europe to someplace
safer.

Michigan writer tells his father’s
story in new novel.
A Stitch in Time

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Michael
Gellis