Donbas: The True Story of an Escape from the Soviet Union
Jacques Sandulescu (1928–2010) was born in Romania and was arrested by soldiers of the occupying Soviet Red Army in January 1945, at age sixteen, because he looked big and strong enough to work. After his escape from Russia, he made his way to the New World, where he was a pro heavyweight fighter, interpreter in the US Army and the UN, jazz bar owner, actor (you saw him say "Is that your purse?" in "Trading Places," "Liberty!" in "Moscow on the Hudson," and "What the hell is ANSKY?" in a memorable New York Yankees commercial), and author. More than 50 years after his escape, Jacques returned to the Donbas region where he'd been a prisoner, a story told in the epilogue of this book.