• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9 to 12

Narrow escapes and bold decisions define the life of teenager Morris Schnitzer. Fleeing from Nazi Germany before the onset of World War ii, Morris ends up in the Netherlands only to watch the country be invaded by the Nazis. With his father’s warning to never set foot in a concentration camp echoing in his mind, Morris resolves to fight — and survive. As he assumes false identities and crosses endless borders in search of safety, Morris never acquiesces to the Nazi occupiers in Western Europe. In his epic journey to Escape from the Edge, Morris endures imprisonment and gruelling work as a farmhand, joins the resistance in Belgium and ultimately enlists in the American army, vowing to take revenge for all that he has lost.

Morris Schnitzer was born in Germany in 1922. In 1947, he immigrated to Montreal, where he earned both a BSc and MSc at McGill University, going on to earn his PhD in 1955. Morris worked at Agriculture Canada in Ottawa; he won the prestigious Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 1995 and wrote three books and more than 400 scientific papers over the course of his distinguished career. Morris Schnitzer passed away in 2020.

Morris Schnitzer's profile page