From a young age, Marc had always known that his father had been an RAF bomber pilot who had spent several years as a POW, earning the Military Cross for his innumerable escape activities. What Marc did not know, and only discovered in the 20 years following his father's death (in 1979), made the story completely unique in the annals of warfare.

Squadron Leader Peter Stevens MC was actually born Georg Franz Hein, a German Jew. His widowed mother sent him to safety in England in 1934, along with his two siblings. Unable to escape herself, his mother committed suicide in July 1939, rather than allow the Nazis to send her to a death camp.

On Sept 3, 1939, Georg Hein committed identity theft, stealing the name of a dead London schoolmate, Peter Stevens, and enlisted for pilot training in the RAF. Joining a frontline bomber squadron on April 1, 1941, Stevens flew 22 combat operations before being shot down and taken POW by his own countrymen.

During the next 3 years and 8 months, Peter Stevens had no protection whatsoever under the Geneva Convention (he was, after all, still a German citizen). Had the Nazis ever discovered his true identity, they could legally have executed him on the spot. Stevens went on to make 8 escape attempts, becoming one of only 69 members of the RAF to earn the Military Cross in WW2. It took almost 20 years of research to piece the story together. Marc Stevens had never known that his father was born Jewish.

'Escape, Evasion and Revenge: The True Story of a German-Jewish RAF Pilot Who Bombed Berlin and Became a POW' was published by Pen and Sword in 2009.