1939 Travels to Belgium to collect material for another travel narrative when the Germans invade Poland and World War II breaks out. Illegally crosses the border into France with a group of Jewish refugees. Due to his lame leg, he is captured by the French police and sent to a detention center for foreign Jews in Strasbourg. In the camp, he befriends the Parisian novelist W. Wowiorka. Miraculously escapes the camp and somehow finds his way to the United States in April 1941. He resides permanently in New York and quickly finds employment with "Der Forverts", the New York Yiddish daily newspaper.