From the Frontlines: A Very Inspiring Holocaust Story

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff and supporters who are living that battle every day. A boy stands in 1935 Berlin, about to become a bar mitzvah—the very week the Nuremberg Laws are enacted. He has a Lutheran mother. He could choose safety. Instead, he chooses to be a Jew. That choice would define his life—and nearly end it—as he spent years hiding in plain sight in Nazi Berlin, captured by the Gestapo four times, escaping three times, and surviving through a combination of luck, cunning, and the paradoxical help of the very Nazis who persecuted him. This is the story of Pips, as he was known, though his real name was Gerd Philipsohn, and he became Gary Phillips shortly after arriving in this country and succeeding beyond his imagination. As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dr. Georgette Bennett returned once again to this podcast in order to tell his story. She is a longtime ADL donor who tells the remarkable and personal story of her cousin Pips in her new book, "Half-Jew, Full Life: The Unlikely Journey of a Voluntary Jew from Nazi Persecution to the American Dream." To read more about the book or to purchase it, visit: https://heresy-press.com/product/half-jew-full-life-by-georgette-bennett/. This conversation was recorded in January 2026.