LOS ANGELES - Leon Prochnik has told hundreds of schoolchildren about his World War II escape. It is a story that could be movie. But it is more like "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" than "The Sound of Music."

Prochnik was born in Poland. His family owned a chocolate-making business that made them rich. But when he was 6 his family had to flee the country. It was 1939. Germany invaded Poland. They had to be smuggled out of the country because they were Jewish. They had to leave everything behind.

"There was this big, giant tub of chocolate in the factory" that was used to make candy bars, Prochnik said. "When nobody was looking, I'd stick my arm in up to my elbow and then lick off the chocolate."

Prochnik is now 80 and lives in Los Angeles. He uses that tub of chocolate during talks about the war that he gives to schoolchildren. He tells them about how Jews in Europe suffered badly in the war.

A Chocolate Sleeping Pill

Today's kids don't really care about that part of history, he said. They don't have a way to really understand it, he explained. "But kids love chocolate, and they pay attention when I tell them how that tub of chocolate helped me get through that dark chapter in human history."

Prochnik tells his young audiences about his life as a little boy. It was as sweet as the chocolate the family made. They had a full-time nanny and a cook. They road in limos. They had a four-story house and lots of toys.

His family was on vacation when Germany went to war against Poland. His father got a telegram. It said that the Germans were rounding up Jews, and that the family should not return home. The news hit the family hard.

"You have your favorite things at your home, and you know you're never going back there," Prochnik tells youngsters. The family stayed with relatives in another part of Poland. The good life was over. They even had to sleep on straw. "Getting used to that was very hard," he explains.

"I'd put myself to sleep at night by thinking about that chocolate tub at the factory. It became my sleeping pill."

From Russia To New York

Then the German army began hunting down Jews where they were staying. His family paid smugglers to sneak them into a country next door. There they hid in barns and filthy farm huts.

They stayed in rooms with goats and pigs, he said.

One of Prochnik's older cousins got papers that let the family leave for Russia. Then they went to Canada. But some of his Jewish school friends in did not get to leave. Young Leon began having bad dreams. In the dreams, he was escaping the Germans in a big tub of chocolate as his friends unsuccessfully tried to get in.

Another relative who had previously escaped to the West paid for the family's trip to Canada. Then the family moved to New York City. They started a new chocolate business.

His family was never able to return to their Krakow home or the factory. German officials "claimed they had bought them from us," Prochnik‏ said.

Prochnik was 7 when he got to New York. His parents said that they were safe. "It took a couple of years in the United States before I stopped being afraid of the dark."

A Thousand Young Listeners

Prochnik grew up to be a writer, movie editor and director. His wife invited him to speak to a class she was teaching. It was the first time he talked to kids about his experience during the war. Then the Museum of Tolerance asked him to speak to visitors there.

The Museum teaches about the Jews wartime experience. It also focuses on racism and prejudice. So far, about 1,000 children have heard about his escape from Poland.

Jesus Mendoza, a 17-year-old senior, said he could relate to Prochnik's past because his immigrant family gave up a life in Mexico to come to this country for better schooling. Jesus's father has a third-grade education; his mother finished second grade, he‏ said.

"I've never heard anyone who actually went through what people like my parents have," Jesus said. "I think people were shocked by the reality. For him the chocolate tub symbolized safety and hope - it made him feel comfortable."

Ninth-grader Aiyanna Pillado, 13, agreed.

"The chocolate tub was his happy place," she said.