“If those papers had been in my pocket I would have never lived to be seventy. I have led a strange life, a set of complete coincidences.”

— Abraham Pais

On the fate of his friend Lion Nordheim, who was executed ten days before the end of the war, and his own release at around the same time, p. 52
To Save a Life: Stories of Holocaust Rescue (2000)
Context: On the day we were caught, Lion and I had been talking about writing a memorandum on the fate of the Jewish war children living in hiding or among Dutch families … we were the representatives of the Zionist youth organization. … Lion who had been taking notes of the discussion, put these papers in his jacket pocket when he took a break from lunch. When the Germans caught us they discovered his notes. If those papers had been in my pocket I would have never lived to be seventy. I have led a strange life, a set of complete coincidences.

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Abraham Pais19

American Physicist 1918–2000

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“If those papers had been in my pocket I would have never lived to be seventy. I have led a strange life, a set of complete coincidences.”

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Abraham Pais19

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