The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joshua M. Greene

Feige Peltel, known by her code name of Vladka, was headed towards Warsaw's wealthier district, hoping to sell ribbons, spools of thread and other sewing goods. Vladka's light brown hair and grey-green eyes, and the fact that she spoke fluent Polish suggested that she was not a Jew. 

It was November 1939, two months since the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and Jews now faced unending restrictions. Jews comprised almost thirty percent of Warsaw's one million residents. But now Vladka's family, like other Jews have surrendered their bicycles and radios, and can only shop during specific hours. Vladka, like other Jewish children, no longer attended school and she found her Christian friends suddenly anti-Semitic and willing to report any Jews attempting to hide their identity.

After selling some sewing supplies in Saski Park, Vladka returned to her family's apartment in the suburb of Praga where she lived with her parents, Shlomo and Hanna,  her sister Henia and her thirteen-year-old brother, Chaim. Her father, who had served in the First World War believed the Germans were good people who would not treat the Jews the way Hitler was telling them to. That was not to be.

In the summer of 1940, Jewish workers were forced by German officials to build a ten foot high brick wall around an area that is roughly one square mile. This became the Jewish ghetto. When the wall was completed in November, the Jews of Warsaw were all forced to move from their homes into the ghetto. The ghetto was soon filled with hundreds of thousands of Jews crammed into crumbling buildings. Germans guarded the entrance to the ghetto. As Vladka walked through the ghetto, "...she saw people young and old, emaciated and dying of starvation." 

Vladka found work as a cashier in a barber shop, while Henia worked in a public soup kitchen.Chaim was too young to work so he helped their mother at home. Vladka's father had tried to sell cloth from his business but he was beaten and robbed by the German police. He became depressed and then ill, contracting pneumonia. His illness and hunger eventually took its toll and he slowly died. Vladka and her family struggled to survive in the ghetto. There were reports of Jews being sent to concentration camps by train, where they were murdered.

In July 1942, the Germans announced that all Jews in the ghetto would be deported. The exception was those employed in the German workshops and in various Jewish organizations. While Henia and Vladka had work permits, her brother and mother did not. So Vladka hid them in the cellar of the soup kitchen where Henia worked. After the deportations, her mother and brother returned to their apartment. At this time Vladka lived in a separate apartment from her family in the same building. But the next morning, a second deportation began. Vladka along with the remaining Jews in her building were forced out into the street. Those with acceptable work permits were sent to the right, while those in the line on the left were to be deported. Afterwards, Vladka found her mother's apartment empty. She wept because she knew she would never see her mother or brother again.

In her grief, Vladka wondered what she should do next. She decided to join the underground with other young people who had survived the selections. There were smaller groups under the direction of a larger group called the Jewish Fighting Organization, in Polish, the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or ZOB. These groups helped other Jews. At first Vladka helped other Jews learn to find food and clothing or find information about missing family members. But her duties became more dangerous with time.

Vladka had a work permit for the Toebbens factory to keep her safe from deportation. Henia's job however, did not offer that protection so Vladka pleaded with her to come to her apartment overnight. However, Henia refused to abandon the children at the soup kitchen. The next day the kitchen was raided by the Germans and Vladka never saw Henia again.

As Vladka struggled with her grief, she became more involved in the underground. More and more Jews - over sixty thousand during the week of September 6 to 12, 1942, were deported from the Warsaw ghetto. In the fall of 1942, over "...265,00 Jews had been sent by train to the Treblinka death camp."  An old friend, Elie Lindner, had escaped Treblinka and returned to the ghetto. He told Vladka and her roommates about the horrors happening at Treblinka. But when her friend Kubu was deported, Vladka was inspired by Kuba's word "It's not over yet." and decided to fight back. That fight involved working to bring about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the only significant resistance of the Jewish people during World War II.

Discussion

The Girl Who Fought Back tells the story of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising from the perspective of Vladka Meed, a real member of the Jewish resistance who survived the uprising and Holocaust.

Vladka Meed, whose given name was Feigele Peltel, was born in 1921 in Warsaw to Shlomo and Hanna Peltel. She would be the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. Because  she had what was considered an "Aryan" appearance, and she was fluent in Polish, Vladka was given assignments that were outside the Warsaw ghetto. She was able to pass as a Christian woman for the main purpose of securing weapons for the ZOB. But she also was involved in rescuing Jewish children and placing them with Christian families and in aiding Jews in hiding within the city of Warsaw. 

Greene's account is factual, focusing on the events happening to Vladka, her family and her fellow Jews. However, The Girl Who Fought Back also manages to convey some of the intense emotions Vladka was experiencing as her family suffered through the Holocaust. The fear of being deported to camps was constant as Vladka and her family knew the trains were taking Jews to their deaths. Even the best of plans couldn't save loved ones. The relief of saving her mother and brother from one deportation, only to have them placed on a second surprise deportation was quickly replaced by intense grief. When Vladka races back to her mother's apartment only to find it empty, she weeps because she knows she will never see them again. The inability to convince her sister Henia to hide at her apartment, only to learn later that she too is taken, makes Vladka feel angry at herself for being unable to convince Henia to save herself. Other times, such as witnessing the cold blooded murder of an elderly woman walking, by an German soldier, Vladka simply doesn't react because there is nothing she can do. When she saw the cruelty of the Germans, she struggled to make sense of what she was witnessing. It was as incomprehensible then as it is now.

Vladka's continued survival, despite ongoing deportations, created a deep sense of loss, but also conflict. She wonders, "Why had she not also been deported? Why was she still alive and not them?" She like many of the survivors experienced "...a loss of hope over their fate at the hands of the Nazis."  Her increasing involvement in the resistance gave Vladka a purpose despite her knowing that the odds of dying were very high. 

When Vladka finds herself in relative safety outside the ghetto as the battle begins, she is "furious at herself" but also feels pride and frustration. She could only watch and wait.  "Vladka was one of a small group of Jews who had done everything in their power to fight the Nazis. It was a battle they knew could not be won, and now, watching atrocity after atrocity, she felt isolated, useless, and lonely. Her friends and family had been murdered, the world she once knew was gone forever, and nothing she could do would every bring it back."  Despite this, the words of ZOB Commander Mordecai Anielewicz inspired Vladka to go on, and to someday "tell the story of those who hadn't survived."

Vladka published her memoir in 1948, describing not just the horrors of the Holocaust and her experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto but also the rich life of the Jewish people prior to the war. She felt it was difficult for historians and scholars to understand what the Holocaust survivors had endured. Likewise she felt her own efforts to resist were also misunderstood. "We didn't think of ourselves as heroes. We didn't have a choice. We were doing what needed to be done, responding to what the Germans were doing to us." She felt that being seen as a hero was "...seeing with today's eyes."

The Girl Who Fought Back is a succinct retelling of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that succeeds in portraying the desperation, determination, courage, and resourcefulness of  Vladka Meed. The last three chapters focus on the post-war period and how Vladka continued her work to tell the world about the uprising but also to teach future generations about the Jewish people and to prevent the hatred and indifference that led to the Holocaust.

Book Details:

The Girl Who Fought Back: Vladka Meed and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joshua M. Greene

New York: Scholastic Focus    2024

142 pp.

DVD: A Hidden Life

A Hidden Life is a biopic about Austrian conscientious objector and Catholic saint, Franz Jagerstatter. Written and directed by Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life is a jewel that simply must be seen by anyone who is interested in studying the past, learning from history and discovering those hidden acts that only now are coming to light.

The film opens with the voice of Franz Jagerstatter stating "I thought that we could build our nest high up in the trees, Fly away like birds to the mountains."  This is followed by black and white archival footage of Hitler being welcomed by the masses, speaking at huge rallies with cheering crowds. Austria has become part of Hitler's Third Reich. Events will unfold that will change Franz's life forever.

Franz and his wife Fani are working in the fields of the farm high in the mountains near the village of St. Radegund, Austria, in 1939. Husband and wife are a team, working together scything, planting potatoes and raising their three beautiful daughters.

Fani reminisces about how she and Franz met, how her sister now lives with them, how life in their village is filled with hard work, good neighbours and is happy. But overhead the sound of an approaching airplane hints at the troubles to come.

In 1940 Franz finds himself at the Enns Military Base doing training. There he meets a fellow recruit, Waldland who is always happy. In a letter to her husband, Fani reveals that France has surrendered and that she's heard they are allowing the farmers to return home. 

At the military base, Franz and the others watch propaganda movies about Germany's conquests of France and Russia. But while the other soldiers clap enthusiastically, Franz is deeply disturbed. He sees the destruction and the human cost and writes to his wife, "Oh my wife. What's happened to our country? To the land we love?"

Summer turns to winter and then to spring, and Franz finally returns home. Fani and the children are ecstatically happy. During the wheat harvest in the fall, one of the farmers tells Franz he has been called up. He thought there would be peace but the war simply goes on. To Franz's question,  "Do you believe in what we are fighting for?" the farmer answers, "Not really." As Franz and the village miller Trakl watch their neighbours embrace Nazism, Trakl questions Franz, " Don't they know evil when they see it?..." Knowing Franz does not support the Nazis, he warns him to be careful.

In a conversation with his parish priest, Father Furthauer, a troubled Franz reveals that if he is called up he cannot serve. "We're killing innocent people, raiding other countries, preying on the weak. Now the priests call them heroes, even saints. The soldiers that do this. It might be that the other ones are the heroes. The ones who defend their homes against the invaders."  Father asks Franz if he's considered the consequences of his actions, for his family. He tells Franz he would most likely be shot and his sacrifice would benefit no one. He does agree to speak to the bishop about Franz's situation.

Franz's internal conflict deepens and Fani notices a change in her once carefree husband. He is thoughtful and worried. When brown shirts show up to collect for the war effort, Franz refuses, telling them he has nothing to give. This leads to a visit from Kraus, the mayor of Radegund as to why he's not supporting his people and the war effort. Franz however,  remains unmoved by the mayor's pleas.

Franz and Fani go to see Bishop Joseph Calasanz Fliesser. But the bishop is of no help to Franz. On the way home Franz tells Fani, "I think he was afraid I was a spy. They don't dare commit themselves or it could be their turn next." Eckinger, a neighbour explains to Franz that the bishop is going along, trying to appease the Nazis, in the hopes the regime will be more tolerant towards the church. Priests are being sent to concentration camps and church possessions are being banned.

The villagers begin to ostracize Franz and Fani. Franz's mother is upset with Fani, blaming her for changing her son. The mayor violently confronts Franz, telling him they must defend their country and that he is traitor to his people and his country.  Despite this Fani supports Franz. She tells him their prayers will be answered, if they are faithful to God, he will be faithful to them. 

Eventually their worst fears are confirmed: Franz is called up. The couple are devastated for they both know that if Franz follows his conscience, he will never return home. In March of 1943,  Franz reports to Enns for military service. He refuses to take a pledge to Hitler and is promptly arrested and put in prison. So begins his short journey of hidden resistance and ultimately to martyrdom.

Discussion

Written and directed by Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life portrays the events leading to Franz Jagerstatter refusal to support the Nazi regime and war, which he considered a great evil. As a result, Franz was arrested, imprisoned and guillotined at 4pm on August 9, 1943 in prison.

A Hidden Life is a deeply moving film that asks viewers to consider the role of conscience in our everyday lives, to explore the concepts of just war, the lost virtue of moral courage, and the possibility of sacrificing everything for our most deeply held convictions. It does so by setting this moving human drama against the majestic backdrop of mountains, waterfalls, blooming meadows and fast-flowing rivers.

Franz and Franziska on their wedding day

Franz Jagerstatter (played by actor August Diehl), whose Catholic faith blossomed after his marriage to Franziska Schwaninger (Valerie Pachner), a devout Catholic,  came to believe that Nazism and Catholicism were completely irreconcilable. When he saw the goals of the Nazi war, to enslave other nations, to plunder their resources, wealth and culture, and their determination to murder an entire race of human beings, he knew he could not participate in any way. To do so was to cooperate with a great evil.

When he was called up for a third time in 1943, Franz reported to the military base at Enns, Austria but refused to complete his military service. According to the Reich Court Martial  “that, due to his religious views, he refused to perform military service with a weapon, that he would be acting against his religious conscience were he to fight for the Nazi State…that he could not be both a Nazi and a Catholic… that there were some things in which o­ne must obey God more than men; due to the commandment ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’, he said he could not fight with a weapon. However, he was willing to serve as a military paramedic.” Interestingly in Malik's film, his offering to serve as a paramedic is somewhat glossed over. In fact, in real life, his request to serve as a medic was denied.

In A Hidden Life, Franz is repeatedly told that his conscientious objection would serve no purpose and therefore was meaningless. He is called a traitor, that his actions are sinful. His lone resistance would be hidden - no one would ever know of it, it would not alter the course of the war, nor stop it. Time and again he was told he had an obligation to his country, his people and to his family. 

Opposition surrounds him on all sides. His Catholic parish priest and even his Catholic bishop were of no help. Hoping for some guidance from his bishop, Franz is told that he "has a duty to the Fatherland, the church tells you so." and that he must obey those in authority over him. Franz asks the bishop, "If our leaders are not good...if they're evil. What does one do?" His bishop has no answer for him.

Before reporting for military service in 1943, Father Furthauer (played by Tobais Moretti) challenges Franz, "Does a man have the right to let himself be put to death for truth? Could it possibly please God?" He tells Franz that God wants us to be happy and not bring suffering on ourselves. In response to Father Furthauer's rationalizing, Franz astutely counters that we must stand up to evil. 

Franz talking with Judge Lueben

In prison, Franz's lawyer tries desperately and repeatedly to get his client to sign a paper. He doesn't understand Franz's defiance asking him, "How do you know what is good or bad?" At his military tribunal in July 1943, Judge Lueben meets with Franz privately. The Reich judge is deeply puzzled about Franz's objections and berates him, "Do you imagine that anything you do will change the course of this war? That anyone outside this court will ever hear of you? No one will be changed. The world will go on as before."  And yet at the end of his time with Franz, one senses that maybe Lueben does understand, that he is condemning a good man.

Franz's intense spiritual conflict is set against the backdrop of the spectacular beauty of the Alps. Malik filmed these scenes in the Italian Alps while the scenes in the farmhouse were shot in the Jagerstatter home in Radegund. The cinematography is one of the most outstanding features of this film. Scenes of Franz and Fani working together, scything wheat, running their mill, milking cows, sowing crops, cutting wood, baking bread, playing with their young children, and spending time alone, portray a simple life of honest but hard work. Set against a backdrop of breathtakingly beautiful scenes of mountains, misty forest, rushing streams, and golden wheat fields, Malik captures the beauty of nature  High in the Austrian Alps, in the tiny village of Radegund, one can feel the presence of God. These scenes of joyful family life and a loving marriage show and Fani's unwavering support sustain Franz.

As it turns out, all who told Franz that his sacrifice would be meaningless and forgotten in the mists of time were wrong. Today he is a saint, his life the subject of a sublime film that has touched millions. On his beatification, Diocesan Bishop Dr. Ludwig Schwarz and Bishop Dr. Manfred Scheuer (Postulator of the beatification procedure) made this statement:

“Franz Jägerstätter is a prophet with a global view and a penetrating insight which very few of his contemporaries had at that time; he is a shining example in his fidelity to the claims of his conscience, an advocate of non-violence and peace, a voice of warning against ideologies, a deep-believing person for whom God really was the core and centre of life. His prophetic witness to Christian truth is based o­n a clear, radical and far-sighted analysis of the barbarism of the inhuman and godless system of Nazism, its racial delusions, its ideology of war and deification of the state, as well as its declared program of annihilating Christianity and the Church. His educated, mature conscience led him to say a resolute ‘No’ to Nazism and he was executed due to his consistent refusal to take up arms as a soldier in Hitler’s war.”
 
Those who wish to read more about Franz Jagerstatter's life are referred to the Diocese of Linz website.

The movie takes its title from a George Eliot quote from her book, Middlemarch:

"The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life..." Franz's life and his act of passive resistance were most definitely hidden and unhistoric. His life, lived faithfully and his refusal to participate in a evil war, have done good that none of us will fully know in this life.

A Hidden Life is a beautifully crafted film, with a cast who give outstanding performances. Malik challenges his audience to consider the life of a man who simply could not cooperate with evil. Ultimately his hidden resistance cost him his life. While the personal price was high, Franz Jagerstatter demonstrated that there was still some good in a very evil time.

Image credits:

Franz and Franzsika wedding photo: https://johnpwalshblog.com/2017/10/26/blessed-franz-jagerstatter-1907-1943-farmer-husband-and-father-conscientious-objector-and-martyr/ 

Franz with Judge Lueben: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/17-january/books-arts/film/film-review-a-hidden-life-cert-12a

Village of Scoundrels by Margi Preus

Village of Scoundrels is a fictional story based on true events that happened in Le Chambon-sure-Lignon and nearby villages located in southern France during World War II. These villages worked together to save countless Jewish children from being murdered by the Nazis.

The story begins in early December of 1942 with the arrival of twenty-two-year-old Inspector Perdant to the fictional village of Les Lauzes. The region where the village is situated has been "living in its own little way outside the rules of the current government". Perdant is determined to see that change. He knows that the village boarding houses are likely hiding foreign Jews and other "undesirables".

Leon and Sylvie, brother and sister, live in a boarding house called Sunnyside. Henni, along with Madeleine, lives in a house called the Beehive along with many children who have come from French concentrations camps. Henni was rescued from the concentration camp at Guz by Madame Desault, who is a Jew. The Beehive is run by Monsieur Boulet. Food and care have transformed the children from being malnourished, angry and prone to stealing, to smiling and healthy.

One night Perdant, out walking the deserted streets, catches young Jean-Paul Filon, a seventeen-year-old riding a bicycle without a headlight and tickets him. Later that night, in his boarding house called Sunnyside, Jean-Paul tells Sylvie that the ticket is useful because it acts as a proof of identity signed by a local policeman. This further cements his forged identity as Jean-Paul Filon. He shows Sylvie his identity card, anxious to see if it is good enough. Leon examines it and believes it to be very good.

Jean-Paul tells them about working as an office equipment repairman. His real name is Otto and one day he went to the office of the prefect of Nice on the pretext of repairing a typewriter in the prefect's office. There he was able to type a letter authorizing the release of his mother Eva Grabowski. The letter worked and they were able to come to Les Lauzes, with fake identities: Otto as Jean-Paul Filon and his mother as a middle-aged Turkish-Russian spinster named Mademoiselle Varushkin.

Inspector Perdant's attempt to "pay a friendly call" on the Beehive boarding house one snowy evening is thwarted by Sylvie, Leon and Jean-Paul. Hannukah celebrations are happening in the boarding house and if Perdant enters, it will be disastrous. To prevent this, Sylvie, Leon and Jean-Paul engage him on the doorstep of the boardinghouse. When Perdant mentions that he heard singing, they begin to sing the Marseillaise loudly, drowning out the sound of the Hannukah celebrations going on inside and saving the Jewish children from certain discovery.

The next day Jean-Paul is visited by ten-year-old Jules who offers to help him. Jean-Paul warns Jules that helping is risky, that he can't know what the documents he delivers say or who they are for. Jules is undeterred and determined so Jean-Paul takes him on.

By December, 1942, wounded German soldiers are billeted at the hotel next to the boarding house where the Jewish children are living. Some of the children believe the presence of the Nazis is due to a letter some wrote protesting the roundup of thirteen thousand Jews in Paris, including four thousand children. However, some of the children believe that they must speak out against the Nazis and their French collaborators.

On Christmas Day 1942, the service at the village church prompts many to think about what is happening in their country and their little village as the pastor recounts the Christmas story. While each of the children have their own thoughts, Perdant is consumed by his thoughts about the teenagers in attendance. "Like that row of teenagers. That redheaded kid, for one. He'd seen him once pulling his sled along in the middle of the night. What had he been doing out at that hour?"

At the end of the service, Pastor Autin invites Perdant to his home for dinner but Perdant turns him down. Instead, Perdant warns Autin that he knows "...there are homes full of non-Aryans and anti-patriots." and that if he isn't careful he may be arrested too.

Perdant continues his snooping, determined to find out how the Jews are being safely brought to the village. He is determined to do something about the pastors whom he believes are deeply involved in rescuing Jewish children. In the winter of 1942-43 the two pastors and the school director are arrested. More men join the maqisards hiding in the forests. Leon disappears from school. Henni writes her aunt in Switzerland to try to get a visa. Jean-Paul, aided by Leon and Sylvie continues forging documents, ration cards and identities. And Madame Creneau who locates safe houses for the Jewish refugees and who helps them cross into Switzerland, decides that it is no longer safe to hide people. She asks Philippe to take on the task of helping them across the border into Switzerland.

When Jules and his friend Claude Dupont are caught painting anti-German slogans on the road, they are taken to Perdant who questions them. Protecting Claude who is actually giving Perdant clues as to what is going on, Jules maintains that Claude is slow. Perdant lets Claude go but decides to use Jules, whom he suspects of knowing much more than he lets on, as an informant.

As the Gestapo sets up more and more raids, and Perdant becomes determined to sniff out those helping hide the Jewish refugees it becomes necessary to move the refugees out of the village and plateau.  Philippe, Jean-Paul, and others work to help the refugees, while Jules works to convince Perdant that he has chosen the wrong side.

Discussion

Village of Scoundrels tells the story of a fictional French village that works together to save thousands of Jewish refugees from certain death during the Nazi occupation of France. The story is based on the real life events that occurred in the village of Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon during the course of the Second World War.

From 1940 until 1944, the residents of Le Chambon, led by Pastors Andre Trecome and Edouard Theis, helped over five thousand refugees, including up to three thousand Jewish refugees. The village is situated on the Vivarais Plateau in south-central France. Its past history of persecution of the largely Huguenot by French Catholics during the 16th to 18th century may have played a significant part in the resistance activities of the villagers who did not support the Vichy government led by Marshal Petain. However, the efforts to help the Jewish people in this region involved people from all faiths including Catholics, Jews, Evangelicals and nonbelievers.

Preus tailored many of the characters in her novel after real people. At the beginning of the novel Preus provides readers with a helpful alphabetical list of the cast of characters. At the back of the novel in the Epilogue, she describes the real life people who each character is based on. For example, Jean-Paul was based on Oscar Rosowsky, a Jewish teenager who wanted to study medicine and who became a master forger during the war. Oscar was able to forge a letter ordering the release of his mother from Rivesaltes internment camp. The character of Philippe who leads people to safety in Switzerland was inspired by Pierre Piton, who also was a passeur or "people smuggler". Catherine Cabessedes Colburn inspired the character of Celeste, the young girl from Paris who eventually carries messages and contraband for the maquis. Madame Desault, Madame Creneau , Henni and Max are also based on real life people. The character of Jules is based somewhat on Paul Majola who did make deliveries for Oscar Rosowsky. Inspector Perdant is loosely based on policeman Leopold Praly who was shot by the maquis eight months after arriving in Le Chambon.

Village of Scoundrels is a novel whose overarching theme is that of journeys. There are the physical journeys of the refugees rescued from the concentration camps on their way to safety in Les Lauzes, of the refugees from France to Switzerland. But there are also many personal journeys, ones from fear and inaction to courage and resistance. 

An example of this journey can be found in the character of Celeste, a young French girl who watches as events unfold in the village. However, at some point she can no longer just watch. When Mme. Creneau asks Celeste if she knows of anywhere they can hide the refugees safely for a short period of time, "Celeste's urge was to go home, climb into bed, and pull the covers over her head. " She believes everything is falling apart until Sylvie reminds her that "as long as there was something to do, there was hope." This inspires Celeste to tell Mme. Creneau about the abandoned chateau. Mme. Creneau now gives Celeste many responsibilities, which she steps up to take on.

As she and Philippe rush back to the chateau to help those hidden there, Celeste explains to Philippe how she became involved. "For a long time I watched you and others doing things, and I admired you...but I was too afraid. I didn't think I could do it -- I was sure I'd mess up. Then I went on a little mission. I was still afraid, but I was doing something. I had a little power. I could actually do something to resist. To fight back. And the oddest thing happened. That huge dark fear of what could happen -- it went away...I guess I had to do the thing I dreaded most in order to lose my fear of doing it."

Perhaps the most dramatic journey is that of Inspector Perdant. He is sent to a small French village to check up on the locals. It is suspected that the villagers are hiding Jewish children and other "undesirables" as Perdant refers to them. Upon his arrival, Perdant definitely senses that something is amiss in the village, although he's uncertain as to what it might be. He's determined to find the Jewish children he believes are being hidden. He comes to believe that almost everyone from the pastors, to the children to the farmers are complicit. And he is correct.

 His initial warnings and threats have little effect on the pastors or the farmers, so he decides to pressure ten-year-old Jules, a young boy who tends his goats on the hills surrounding the village. But Jules is not afraid of Perdant. In fact, quite the opposite. He becomes Perdant's conscience pushing the young policeman to face the morality of his choices as hunts down those helping save the Jewish refugees.

Perdant is pushed into action when the Gestapo conducts a raid on one of the boarding houses. Humiliated at being outdone by the Gestapo, Perdant is decides he must act despite his repulsion at the brutality of the raid. But he is deeply conflicted.  He goes to the river and throws stones into the water.
"Each stone a bad decision he had made.
The decision to join the national police.
His desire for pormotion that had led him here.
His fawning admiration for the leaders of Vichy and, worse, their German overlords."

Like most French, Perdant doesn't like the Germans but he wonders "Why did he want to do what he did?" Perdant had started out wanting to help France. "He didn't know what to believe anymore, except that he'd seen these kids on their sleds and bikes, singing as they hiked in the woods. They were hardly dangerous. They were just kids! All they wanted was to have a life." Yet Perdant is not yet ready to give up. He wants to make that big arrest.

So he seeks out Jules who he orders to take him to the abandoned Chateau de Roque. Jules knows the maquis are using this old building as a place of refugee so he tries his best to physically thwart Perdant. At the same time Jules attempts to get Perdant to see how his actions are morally wrong.  Perdant believes that "Someone has to keep law and order...." and questions Jules as to why the people of Les Lauzes do not follow the law, stating they cannot "choose the laws you like or don't like, willy-nilly." But Jules tells him that it is not a case of people not "liking" the laws, instead they believe the laws are wrong. "...Everybody knows what is wrong, but some people are too afraid to say or do anything. And some people manage to do a lot of twisty turns in their minds because they wish it to be right. But you can't make it right by wanting it to be right."

Perdant insists that people have to follow the law, but he knows that he is really trying to fill a quota demanded by Hitler in retribution for two German officers killed. Remembering his one successful arrest of two Jewish brothers brings no comfort to Perdant because it is not the capture of the brothers but the resistance of the young teenagers in an attempt to save the boys that fills his mind.

Eventually Jules, desperate to stop Perdant, confronts him with the policeman's gun, asking him what he thinks he is accomplishing by his spying, hunting and arresting of people. It is a question Perdant has asked and now has no answer. "Now he tried to rouse himself to answer with his usual patriotic fervor -- to save France for the Frenchmen, save the country from anti-patriots, communists, immigrants, the Jews who had been working to undermine the civilized nations of Europe....The problem was, he wasn't sure he believed it anymore."

It is only when Jules is seriously wounded that Perdant comes to his senses. He now sees all the resistance's activities with complete clarity,but even more importantly he sees his own actions compared to those of the teens in the resistance. He now must decide what to do with his life; he can continue to go down the path he is on or he can change direction.  Perdant acts to help them. He stalls the police and gendarmes as they arrive at the chateau. When they do raid the chateau, he has bought them the time to escape. It is the beginning of Perdant's redemption.

Village of Scoundrels is a beautifully crafted novel based on a true story of courage and resistance that occurred in France during World War II. It is a novel of courage and resistance in the face of great fear, and redemption. That Preus did extensive research prior to writing the novel is evident. She also visited the region of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

There is a wealth of supplementary material at the end of the novel including the detailed Epilogue with information on many key figures in the resistance, a Historical Timeline and a detailed Bibliography listing many resources for further research.

Well written and highly recommended.

Book Details:

Village of Scoundrels by Margi Preus
New York: Amulet Books        2019
302 pp.

White Rose by Kip Wilson

The White Rose is a historical novel about the White Rose resistance group formed by a group of medical students and a professor out of the University of Munich in the early 1940's. The group included Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, Kurt Huber, Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell and Professor Christoph Probst as well as others. After the defeat of German forces in the Battle of Stalingrad, with millions of wounded and dead, with the ongoing annihilation of Jewish citizens of Germany and other occupied countries, the destruction of the Polish aristocracy and forced labour, the White Rose group hoped to prick the consciences of their fellow Germans into rebelling. Sadly their resistance brought them only death. By 1943, it was too little too late for the German people who were completely under the control of  the Nazis. It would be two more years before the Nazi regime would be brought to its knees by the Allies.

The novel opens with a section title "The End" on February 18, 1943 with Sophie and Hans having been taken to Gestapo headquarters where they are both being interrogated by Herr Mohr. Sophie naively believes she will be able to lie her way out of this dire situation.

The story then backtracks in a section titled "Before", to 1935 where fourteen-year-old Sophie enjoys life in Ulm with her four siblings Inge, Hans, Liesl and Werner. Her family has lived in Ulm in a rented flat in a building owned by Jakob Guggenheimer who is a Jewish businessman. Sophie's aim is to become "...the most of me" and "...the best of me". Sophie dreams of being a noble person. 1935 also sees the Fuhrer decree that young Germans must complete a mandatory six months of service.

In 1937 Hans leaves for Gopping for the Reichsarbeitsdienst to complete his labour service. Signs begin appearing, on bridges, in parks and on German Jewish storefronts, indicating that Jews arse not welcome. The Scholl's home is raided by the Gestapo and Inge and Werner are arrested. So is Hans on his military base. Hundreds of teenagers throughout Germany are also arrested, accused of being involved in illegal youth group. Inge and then Werner are released, but Hans is not. Eventually Hams is acquitted in 1938.

By 1938, Sophie begins to see the changes in Nazi Germany. She is glad to leave Ulm during a summer trip.
"escape
from the once overwhelming
civilization of Ulm, now
eroding
at its very
foundation with
        soft music turned harsh
        beloved books burned
        true art marked degenerate,
all hints that a terrible future
presses close,..."

Meanwhile returning to "The End", Sophie continues to be interrogated as Robert Mohr is determined to catch Sophie and Hans.

In 1939, Hans is now in Munich studying medicine and Sophie's boyfriend Fritz is away training soldiers. Although he's enjoying university, Hans knows the Reich doesn't value the knowledge they are learning. Instead it just wants the young men for war. Because Sophie's father is doing well in his business, he moves the family to a larger home on Munsterplaz.

1940 sees the Blitzkrieg in progress as Germany marches through Luxembourg to France. Sophie attempts to get her male friends to promise not to fire their weapons, to refuse to follow the Fuhrer blindly. A letter from Hans in May reveals that German soldiers are commandeering the best homes in France, making him feel like they are thieves. In July he writes about the casaulties. At this time Sophie begins to hear rumours of disabled children being deliberated killed in vans with poison gas. She wonders,
"Yet what can anyone
do
to stop it?"
She feels ignoring this would be cowardly.

In 1941, Sophie attempts to circumvent the Reichsabeitsdienst with teacher training. Instead, she is sent to Krauchenwies labor camp, with its forced ideology lessons and constant work. In May, Sophie is energized by the sermon of Bishop August Von Galen who reminds the German people that deliberating killing is murder and punishable by death. Von Galen's sermon is circulated as leaflets, giving Sophie hope people will act. In September, Jews are ordered by Reinhard Heydrich to wear the yellow Star of David. Shortly afterwards, rumours begin about Jews from Ulm being deported out of Germany. Sophie wonders where they are being sent.Sophie and her family refuse to participate in the collection drive for the Wehrmacht. She worries and prays for her brothers to survive the war.

1942 sees Sophie finishing her labor service in Blumberg and then entering university. Possibly inspired by Bishop Von Galen, Sophie asks Fritz to help her get money and a voucher for a duplicating machine. In Munich, Sophie is both uplifted and determined to make a difference. She meets Alex a half-Russian, half German student, and Christoph and his wife Herta with two small children, Han's girlfriend Traute. Sophie is given a leaflet like Bishop Von Galen's, encouraging passive resistance. Sophie is convinced that the leaflet is the work of her brother Hans. Sophie resolves when her brother returns from the front, she will not be excluded.

Meanwhile in the present of February 19, 1943 Sophie denies knowing anything about mailing "treasonous leaflets" in Munich and other cities. But then Sophie learns that Hans has confessed and that they have evidence from their flat. This leads Sophie to admit that she and Hans did in fact spread the leaflets because
"The war for Germany
                is lost,
young lives
              sacrificed in vain..."
They wanted to inspire others to follow them.
Sophie begins to realize her situation is dire,
"There's no way
              out
of this cage."
  

Discussion

In her novel, White Rose, Wilson has crafted a  deeply moving account of the events that led to the arrest and execution of members of the White Rose resistance group in Germany in 1943. Initially Sophie Scholl believes she and Hans will survive the interrogation. Instead they are considered traitors and are dealt with harshly; sentenced to death. The tragedy of Sophie and Hans Scholl is that Sophie hoped their deaths would spark more resistance. But it proved to be too little too late. Only defeat in war would bring the down Hitler and end the mass killing. Within Germany many members of the resistance were hunted down and executed. The leaflets found their way out of Germany and into the hands of the Allies who dropped them over Germany. But by this time, the people of Germany were too afraid to confront the Nazi regime which now had complete power over all of the country. They could only wait for the Allies and Russia to overrun their country.

Wilson portrays Sophie as a young, honourable woman whose father, Vati instilled in her the ideals of  truth and justice and who was raised to be politically minded. Sophie is portrayed as a young person who sees her beloved country being destroyed from within and who longs for others to do something, for her fellow Germans to resist, but no one takes up the charge. It seems Bishop Von Galen's homily and the leaflets distributed afterwards are the impetus for Sophie taking action.

The story of the White Rose resistance group is told primarily from Sophie Scholl's perspective, in free verse. There are a few poems written in the voices of Jakob Schmid the custodian who saw Sophie and Hans with the fliers and who brought them to his superior, Roland Freisler the judge who condemns Sophie and Hans, Else Gebel a political prisoner who shared Sophie's jail cell, Robert Mohr the Gestapo investigator who interrogated Sophie. Wilson has divided events up sections titled  "Before" which relate the events that lead up to her and Hans capture at the University of Munich, "Day Zero" which is a section of poems about what happens at the university when the leaflets are released and "The End" which deal with her interrogation, sentencing and execution.

Wilson has done considerable research into White Rose and the Scholls as evidenced by her extensive list of sources, both in English and German at the back of the novel as well as primary sources in German. She also provides readers with a Glossary and a list of the people involved as well as what happened to them.

Novels like White Rose are important because they challenge young readers to consider the actions of real people like Hans and Sophie Scholl and to ask what they might have done if they had lived in this time. Sophie and Hans originally supported Hitler and were eager to join the youth groups. But they quickly became disillusioned when they saw what policies and ideas these groups were promoting.  Many of the issues that Sophie experienced are issues are similar to ones we face today; we live in an era of unprecedented propaganda and fake news, where inaccurate content can be created and spread quickly, where voices different from the accepted social/political narrative can be deplatformed and where even facts often don't hold sway.

White Rose is a well-written novel that is highly recommended. Although Sophie and Hans Scholl's deaths did not lead to the uprising she hoped, they are remembered today as one of the few voices that stood alone against the Nazi regime. And that is no small accomplishment.

For more information on the White Rose resistance group readers are directed towards these resources:

A Noble Treason: The story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Revolt Against Hitler by Richard Hanser

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum


Book Details:

White Rose by Kip Wilson
New York: Versify, an imprint of  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co.     2019
358 pp.

Island War by Patricia Reilly Giff

Island War opens in 1941. Europe is at war with Nazi Germany while Japan is preparing to attack the United States as well as several Asian countries.

In a small town in Connecticut, Isabel (Izzy) is busy packing her suitcase to travel to an island off the coast of Alaska. However, her mother, a bird watcher, isn't keen to go despite the fact that Izzy's father had made the plans and gotten their tickets. A little over two months ago, Izzy's father was killed in a car accident. Now Izzy is keen for a change of scene, to go to the island, to watch the birds and for the snow and the wind. Her Gram convinces Izzy's mother to travel to the island that Izzy's father spent so much time on.

Fourteen-year-old Matt loves rowing out on Long Island Sound. One day Matt learns from his father that the two of them will be travelling to an island that is part of the Aleutians, an island chain off the coast of Alaska. Matt's father feels they need some time together, but Matt doesn't want to go. He's not close to his father who is always away and who always seems annoyed when he comes home.

Izzy and Matt first run into one another on the boat taking them to the island. Izzy, running around on deck, trips over Matt who is sitting against the railing. Izzy recognizes Matt as a boy from school who is a few grades ahead of her. But their interaction is not friendly. On the island, Izzy and her mother live in a wooden cottage with three rooms. Izzy and her mother are welcomed by the women on the island. Izzy makes friends with a girl named Maria. Remembering her father's stories about a cave where he could watch kittiwakes and cormorants, Izzy asks Maria if she knows where the cave might be located. Maria tells her there are many caves on the island. Instead she's more interested in whether Izzy brought books with her. But unknown to Maria, Izzy finds reading difficult.

Izzy finds herself attending a school with only five students including Matt. Their teacher Mrs. Weio tells them about the legends associated with the island. However, outside of school the students are more interested in the threat of war coming to the islands which belong to the United States. Japan lies only a thousand miles to the southwest.

Meanwhile Matt is preoccupied with thoughts about home. An older boy, Michael shows Matt a baidarka, a single person kayak with a sea lion skin stretched across the frame. Matt's first try in the kayak is scary as he struggles to learn how to use it and it overturns. However Matt soon masters the kayak, travelling along the coast and also how to right himself. But one day Matt's father tells him he cannot go out in the kayak. Japan has bombed Hawaii and sunk half the American fleet. The day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Izzy and the other islanders learn that America has declared war on Japan. While Mrs. Weio believes they will all be evacuated before war comes to their island, others are not so sure.

Winter passes in to the spring of 1942. One day an unknown ship appears on the horizon. Some believe it might the American navy but after church, Izzy and others discover that Japanese soldiers have arrived on the island. The soldiers force everyone into the church while they go through the village looting and damaging the homes. Eventually Izzy and her mother along with the other residents are allowed back into their damaged homes. The next morning Matt, his father and the other men are ordered to fish while everyone else remains in the village. Every day the men bring home fish which is divided up. The Japanese soldiers also string a wire fence around the village homes, making them prisoners.

In September, Matt figures out a way to get past the wire fence and get to his kayak hidden in a little cove. Each night he goes out to the cove and paddles his kayak. It is Maria, who is recovering from scarlet fever who clues Izzy into what Matt is doing. Watching one night, Izzy sees him and tries to follow but is caught by a guard. Then later in the week, Matt's father reveals that he knows about Matt's nightly trips to the kayak but also that he has learned that they are to be taken to a prison camp on the Japanese mainland either that night or in the morning. Matt's father wants him to leave tonight for his kayak and that he will meet him later on with a two man kayak that he has hidden in the back of the shed. He also tells Matt that he really does love him and that he is proud of his resourcefulness.

However things do not go as planned. Matt leaves for the hidden kayak as planned but Izzy also manages to get out of the camp. On Thor Hill she sees a line of people boarding a ship, one of whom looks like Matt's father. Izzy loses her glasses but makes it back to the village only to discover that her mother and everyone else in the village have left. Her mother's note tells her she has been taken to Japan. Matt too discovers the villagers gone. Each at first believe they are alone until they discover they are the only ones left on the island and must work together if they are to survive the coming winter.

Discussion

Reilly Giff uses an unnamed Aleutian island as the setting for a remarkable survival story set during World War II. In A Note at the back of her novel, Reilly Giff indicates that her "story is loosely based on the island of Attu, the farthest west in the chain of the Aleutian Islands..." The Aleutians are an island chain stretching some 1900 km into the Pacific Ocean, partly belonging to the United States with some islands also part of Russia.  War came to the Aleuts on June 3, 1942 when two islands, Attu and Kiska were occupied by Japanese troops. They were considered strategically important by both the United States and Japan in the war as they would allow either country a route of attack on enemy territory. The Americans did offer to evacuate the residents of Attu prior to the Japanese invasion, but they refused. They were eventually deported to the a prison camp in Japan.

The occupation of an unknown Aleutian island becomes the backdrop for a story about survival and  working together with someone you don't like. Izzy and Matt are two young people who find themselves visiting the Aleutians and then thrust into the war. The two main characters, who tell the story in alternating chapters, are a study in contrasts. Izzy had come eagerly to the island with her mother who observes birds, while Matt has come reluctantly with his father who has some unknown job. While Izzy is close to her mother, Matt feels distant from his father, who appears critical of his young teenage son.

Initially both Izzy and Matt believe they are alone on the island but soon discover they share the fate of being abandoned with the one person they least like. Their mutual dislike stems from a misunderstanding on the boat coming to the island, when Izzy tripped over Matt's legs. Each believes the other deliberately did something to them.

Izzy, least prepared to survive, is willing to work with Matt but Matt wants nothing to do with her. When he discovers Izzy is also left behind, Matt's first reaction is "You!....In my house! Eating our food. I should have known."  He accuses her of being a thief and then tells her that she has to fend for herself, that he doesn't ever want to see her around his house again.  Matt continues to be mean towards Izzy even when she warns him that there are four enemy soldiers still on the island.

Despite being older than Izzy, Matt is immature. After he's injured, he wonders, "How had this happened to me? Did I feel sorry for myself? I did. And why not." He ungraciously complains about the bandages being pink, not recognizing Izzy's huge sacrifice for him. After all she has done for him, Matt appears to intend to abandon Izzy, only to lose his beloved kayak. Eventually though Matt does realize that he owes a debt to Izzy, "I thought of all she had done these long months. How could I have made it without her?"

Izzy is a resourceful, intelligent character who recognizes that in order to survive she and Matt must work together. Izzy shows herself to be patient and optimistic in the face of adversity. In this regard she is portrayed as the very opposite of Matt. She is motivated by the words of the teacher she never liked back home in Connecticut, "You could do anything, Izzy, if only you set your mind to it." 
Izzy finds Matt mean and self-absorbed. "How could one person think he was so perfect? And he'd gotten most of it wrong anyway." Despite Matt treating Izzy badly, she tells him about a cave that might be safer than staying in the abandoned village and she cares for him when he injures his knee. She is able to sacrifice something that she loves dearly, her pink velvet party dress, to use for bandages for Matt's injured knee.

Ultimately, Matt and Izzy do become friends, apologizing to one another for their misinterpreting of each other's actions. It is a friendship forged in adversity that appears to outlast their experiences on the island. Both characters learn about themselves; Izzy that she can achieve what she sets her mind to and that she has an inner strength, Matt that he is very much like the father he struggles to understand.

Island War  with its unique setting, believable characters and many themes, will be enjoyed by younger readers who have an interest in survival fiction.

Book Details:

Island War by Patricia Reilly Giff
New York: Holiday House    2018
203 p

Across A War-Tossed Sea by L.M. Elliott

Fourteen-year-old Charles Bishop and his ten-year-old brother Wesley are celebrating Labor Day 1943 with their American host family, the Ratcliffs at a pond that feeds Four Mile Creek. Charles and Wesley have been sent overseas to America to escape Hitler's bombing of London. The Radcliff family has taken in Charles and Wesley because their father saved Mr. Ratcliff's life during World War I. Now they are living in Tidewater, Virginia with a family that includes seven-year-old twins Johnny and Jamie, two older boys Bobby and twelve-year-old Ron and their older sister, sixteen-year-old Patsy.

Tidewater, is located near Richmond, Virginia, an area heavily involved in the war effort, with factories at Richmond producing parachutes and other war materials, while east along the James River, the U.S. Navy has a base at Norfolk.  From Norfolk, the U.S. military deploys servicemen out of Hampton Roads to the war in Europe and North Africa.

Even though they are thousands of miles away from the war, Wesley continues to have nightmares about the bombing and the treacherous Atlantic crossing. One such nightmare occurs during their Labor Day outing after Wesley falls asleep because of the oppressive heat. Charles is embarrassed by Wesley's struggles but Patsy tries to comfort him. This leads Wesley to tell her about being attacked in the Atlantic and how their ship was not allowed to stop and save those whose ships had been torpedoed. But Ron ridicules Wesley whom he bullies constantly, which makes Charles angry. Patsy intervenes to prevent a fight. 

In September of 1943, Charles begins high school. He's on the football team as a tight end, while Bobby is the quarterback. As some of his school chums are now nighttime air raid wardens, Charles worries that he will be considered a coward. So when he writes home he tells his parents he wants to return to help the fire brigade in extinguishing the incendiary bombs in London.

Meanwhile Wesley finds himself "skipped ahead" to grade seven, the same grade as Ron. While Charles has a best friend in Bobby, Ron is not interested in being Wesley's friend. Instead Ron resents the presence of the Bishop brothers and bullies Wesley constantly. Ron accuses Wesley of cheating on a test but their teacher, Miss Darling discovers the paper he was holding was a telegram from his parents. Charles tries to encourage Wesley to stand up to Ron, telling him to ignore him and to work at being really good at something that Ron isn't so he will look foolish when he bullies him. Wesley decides on working at the spelling bee but although he makes it to the county championships he loses when he spells a word in the British way.

With the approach of Halloween, Charles and Bobby are busy preparing for the football championships, so when Mr. Radcliff asks the boys to help out with harvesting of pumpkins and the mowing and bringing in the hay, Bobby tries to decline. This leads his father to suggest that because help is hard to find he might have to hire the German POWs. Charles becomes so upset he leaves the dinner table and Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliff instead decide they will hire the sons of a local man, Ed. Wesley is sent to tell Charles so the two of them can visit Ed to ask him, but he's unable to find Charles. Instead he decides to visit Ed's house alone and while there he meets Ed and Alma and their son Freddy. Wesley leaves that evening believing he may have found a friend.

Soon everyone is working hard to bring in the harvest; Mr. Ratcliff and Ed and shredding cornstalks, Ed's sons and two friends are raking the hay into a tractor baler and Bobby, Ron and Charles and the twins are plowing the cornfield and planting winter wheat. When the mules bolt, dragging Charles it is Freddy who saves him. Although Wesley and Charles are grateful, Ron is angry that his brother Bobby is more concerned with Charles.

Charles and Wesley have many good and bad experiences; a haunted house for Halloween, a hunting trip that Wesley almost doesn't make because he shoots off a rifle in the Ratcliff home, Wesley's unexpected meeting of a Chickahominy Indian man and Charles joining Patsy whom he is crushing on, to plane-watch. But it is a series of events in the new year of 1944 that change many things for both the Ratcliffs and the Bishop brothers. Wesley gets into a brawl with Ron and his friends but tells Mr. Radcliff only part of the story to make Ron look good. This changes how Ron is viewed by his family and makes he and Wesley friends. Patsy learns that her beau, Henry Forester is missing in action over Europe. And Charles learns from a letter from a school chum that their school has been bombed. Feeling ashamed that he's not at home to help, Charles decides to attempt to canoe down the river to the Newport News-Hampton Roads docks where he hopes to stowaway on a cargo ship for Britain. This almost costs him his life.

Summer brings with it new challenges especially as the German POWs begin to work on the Ratcliff farm. For Charles and Wesley this means confronting their own prejudices and fears.

Discussion

Across A War-Tossed Sea is the third book in a trilogy that includes Under A War-Torn Sky and A Troubled Peace. This book is set in Virginia and tells the adventures of two English boys sent to the safety of America during World War II.

Although safe from incendiary bombs and the threat of invasion, Charles and Wesley Bishop must cope with homesickness, the trauma of their war experiences in London as well as living in America with its very different culture from that in their home country of England. Charles finds the American practice of talking about feelings annoying, especially when it comes to their war experiences in London. "Did they really think that talking or hugging or those molasses cookies and lemonade they endlessly offered could wash away the memories or houses shattering, friends trapped under rubble, or ships exploding and burning while survivors clung to wreckage in ten-foot-high waves?"

Charles' major struggle centers around the shame he feels at not being back in London to help with the war effort. At fourteen, he believes he can contribute and, to his school mates, it looks like he ran away. "Even though he and Bobby were good mates and he was enjoying high school, Charles was antsy to return to England and do his part. Several of his old school chums had become nighttime air raid wardens. Charles feared some of them called him a coward for evacuating to the U.S."  It is this shame after receiving a letter from England from a school chum, that leads him to run away from the Radcliff farm and attempt to canoe down the river to the sea. "More to the point, it felt to Charles as if he school chum's letter had implied that he was a coward for not being in London when the city desperately needed every able hand - a sense of guilt that had dogged Charles ever since he had walked up the gangplank of the ship evacuating him to America."  Charles' attempt to canoe to the Newport News-Hampton Roads docks almost ends in disaster. He does realize the serious repercussions his actions have for both himself (he develops pneumonia) the Ratcliff family (who use their savings to buy medication to save his life) and works to make amends. Eventually Charles is allowed to come home when his father is seriously injured in a bombing.

Charles tries to take the place of their father for his younger brother Wesley,  imagining how he might help Wesley deal with the bullying while coping with his own problems.  "Since crossing three thousand miles of ocean and settling in on the Ratcliff farm, Charles had had to play dad, mum, and big brother all to Wesley. No one comforted him when he was racked with similar nightmares!"

Meanwhile, Wesley struggles to overcome what is clearly post traumatic stress disorder due to the bombing in London and the attack on the ships during their Atlantic crossing. He experiences nightmares and is triggered by loud noises. The novel opens with Wesley experiencing one of his nightmares, much to Charles' annoyance. When Wesley accompanies Freddy and his family to London to see the launch of a aircraft carrier Freddy's father has been working on, he experiences a flashback of a air raid in London. "Abruptly, the five o'clock siren sounded, signaling the end of the work day for some, the beginning of it for others. Most didn't react to the blaring sound. But Wesley flinched and stiffened. Being around big ships all day had brought back a lot of very bad memories. Now the siren's wail sounded like the alarm he'd heard over and over again back home when the Luftwaffe was coming loaded with hellfire. The truck backfired again...He looked nervously to the sky, waiting for the first whistling scream of a bomb falling through the air. He backed away from Freddy, not seeing him, only the rush of hurrying people...He needed to find the nearest shelter, quick!"  Freddy's father and mother help Wesley calm down. However, with time and living in a safer environment, Wesley finds he has fewer

Wesley also has to deal with bullying by Ron Ratcliff. Although his older brother Charles tries to encourage Wesley to ignore Ron, Wesley decides a different way to deal with him. Recognizing that Ron needs affirmation, Wesley points out the good act Ron did when he is attacked by Ron's friends. Although Ron pushed Wesley first, in the end he saves him from a serious beating and Wesley helps him fight when they turn on him too. Affirmed by both his father and his older brother Bobby, both of whom are shocked at Ron's good behaviour, Ron becomes friendlier and stops picking on Wesley.

Charles and Wesley are unaware of  how different life in America is compared with England. Charles likes that Americans have "an ease with giving out compliments that, generally speaking, Brits didn't." Wesley discovers that in America, Negroes must sit at the back of the bus, segregated from white people and that some white Americans are very prejudiced against blacks. However, when a white bus driver helps Freddy and his family when they are threatened by white teens,  his actions demonstrate not all American's feel this way.

But both Charles and Wesley are forced to confront their own prejudices and hatred - against Germans when the German POWs come to work on the farm.  To Charles and Wesley, all Germans are Nazis but they soon discover that this is a very simplistic view when they meet Gunter, a young German soldier who doesn't believe in the Nazi ideology.

When Gunter expresses relief over the Allied invasion of Europe and the hope that the war will end soon, as so many Germans are dying, his strong emotions shock Wesley. "Were those tears in the Jerry's eyes? Wesley was amazed. He had to blink away the image Gunter painted, knowing well the type of horrifying scene he described. Wesley had never though much before about German families suffering the same kind of terror he and Charles had." Wesley and Gunter connect through their mutual interest in "Indians" and the Wild West and their love of reading.

For Charles, it is not so easy. When he learns that the German POWs who are sympathetic to the Americans are at risk of being murdered by other German POWs, Charles feels little sympathy. He is forced to confront his feelings of hate when Gunter is bitten by a deadly water moccasin and is in danger of dying. His moans bring back memories of a neighbour horribly injured in a German bombing but Charles also remembers how Gunter saved the Ratcliff twins from a crashing plane. Putting aside his feelings, Charles helps Gunter by sending Freddy for help and attempting to suck the poison out of the snake bite (a practice that does NOT work). Gunter, who believes he is dying from the snake bite, tells Charles, "...Kill if you must to serve your country. But revenge is a  poison. Like this snake. Fight to end hatred. Fight to bring peace. Yes?" Charles agrees and learns that he must forgive if he's going to do what Gunter asks. "For the first time in a long while, the Lord's Prayer filled Charles's mind and heart: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we...' -- he paused and emphasized the words to himself --'as we forgive those who trespass against us.' " When Charles does leave for England he knows he going "back into a war-tossed world. But he was ready to face it now, to fight, as Gunter had advised -- not for revenge -- but to stop those who brought war and delighted in it."

The novel ends on a positive, upbeat note, despite the fact that the war is still ongoing. Charles is returning to England but he feels differently about Americans than when he first arrived and is grateful to the Ratcliffs. "He'd learned so much from them -- about friendship, about generosity, about standing up to trouble." Wesley has overcome bullying and he tells Charles he's fine to stay behind; he hasn't had nightmares for some time and he's made two good friends in Freddy and Ron.

Elliott successfully recreates the 1940's war era in rural America through the experiences of two young British lads. This author is skilled at incorporating many details of life into the story; racial segregation that existed at this time, farming practices, the war effort in America, the dangers the merchant marine encountered bringing supplies to England and life in general for Americans at this time. Also incorporated seamlessly into the story are facts about the war, Hitler's soldiers and life in London during the war. For example, while Charles is fuming about the German POWs he notes that some are from Rommel's elite panzer divisions that served in Africa. Elliott uses this opportunity to inform readers how SS troops were branded- a practice implemented so they could be quickly identified. "They were tall, muscular, blond, haughty -- perfect Aryan specimens. They probably had the telltale 'SS' tattoo under their armpits, marking them as true believers, devotees of Hitler's racist beliefs." In this way, readers learn historical facts without really realizing it.E lliott has included an Afterword that provides further detailed information on life in wartime Britain, U-boats, segregation, V-1 rockets and German POWs in America.

Across A War-Tossed Sea suffers somewhat from uneven pacing; young readers may find the first hundred pages of the novel slow going. After the first hundred pages though, there are many exciting adventures and experiences which occur quickly, one after the other, engaging the reader to the very end of the novel.

Overall, Across A War-Tossed Sea is another well-written and appealing story by Elliott that explores the themes of tolerance, forgiveness and redemption.

Book Details:

Across A War-Tossed Sea by L. M. Elliott
New York: Disney-Hyperion Books      2014
247 pp.

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

"Well, there was a quote I couldn't quite recall, and I just found it. Listen." He began to read, very slowly. 'Music is the hidden arithmetic of the soul, which does not know that it deals with numbers. Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.' That's exactly what I was talking about."

Jimmy Kerrigan to his daughter Dewey as they eat lunch together, Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The Green Glass Sea is a story of family, friendship and loss during World War II. The lives of two girls, Susan Gordon and Dewey Marie Kerrigan intersect as their families are brought to Los Alamos in this narrative about the Manhattan Project and the American effort to develop the atom bomb.

The story begins in 1943 with ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan being picked up by Corporal Margaret Beckwith on the steps of her neighbour, Mrs. Kovack's house in St. Louis. Dewey had been living with her nana but she had a stroke and had to go into the hospital. Her father is in Chicago helping with the war effort and Dewey hasn't seen him since the Fourth of July.

Corporal Margaret Beckwith tells her that her father is no longer in Chicago but at a location in New Mexico so secret that even she doesn't know. She is placed on a train to Lamy, New Mexico and a porter is assigned to care for her. On the train, Dewey discovers there is an observation car and she takes her magazine, Boy Mechanic, and her radio set to the car to tinker with.

In the observation car Dewey meets a young man, who looks like a bum but who knows about radios. Coincidentally, the man who gives his name as Dick Feynman, is also traveling to Lamy, New Mexico and he knows Dewey's father, Jimmy Kerrigan. Dick tells Dewey that they will be living at a place called the Hill. When they arrive in Lamy, Dick waits with Dewey until she is picked up by Sergeant Prager who takes her to get a pass to the Hill from Dorothy McKibbin. Finally Dewey is reunited with her beloved papa who drives her to their home in Los Alamos. Her father has been sent to Los Alamos to work on creating a special "gadget" that will win the war for the Americans.

The story then jumps to August of 1944. Susan (Suze) Gordon is playing cards with her mom in their house. Suze and her mother and father, who were both professors at Berkeley arrived on the Hill in the fall of 1943. Suze's father is a metallurgist, her mother is a chemist. Although eleven-year-old Suze wants to be friends with girls like Judy, Barbara, Betty and Joyce, she finds herself unable to break into their clique. In an attempt to win their approval, Suze tells the girls that she knows a shortcut to the Tech PX so they can get cokes.

Meanwhile Dewey who has finished a picnic lunch with her papa, decides to go to the dump for parts for her latest project. At the dump she meets her friend Charlie and his little brother Jack. Dewey is in Charlie's eighth grade math class. The boys are there looking for wood for their secret treehouse while Dewey finds copper tubing and a broken typewriter. The three help each other with their cumbersome load of "finds" and make their way back.  On their way they encounter Suze and the girls she is with. When Suze sees Dewey, she ridicules her by calling her "screwy Dewey". Instead of playing with the other kids, Dewey is always working on her radio or some other project at recess. Suze's bullying of Dewey doesn't have the result she expects, as Charlie defends Dewey and even offers to buy her a coke.

A few days later, Suze's mother Terry takes her to visit a friend in another part of the Hill called Morganville. That friend turns out to be Jimmy Kerrigan, Dewey's father. When Suze realizes this she is not friendly towards "screwy Dewey".

The story then moves to March 24, 1945 with Dewey's father telling her he has to meet with General Groves and his committee who have arrived from Washington. After he leaves, Dewey is visited by Suze's mother, Terry Gordon who is looking for Dewey's father and becomes interested in Dewey's "time machine". On Sunday Dewey and her father have a picnic in Bandelier National Monument. Dewey notes that her father seems very sad and troubled. During their time together he tells her that before the war he worked with a German mathematician, Josef who lived in Berlin. Before the war they "were trying to understand how the world works, and borders didn't matter. But they do now."  Now Josef and Dewey's father are in a race to solve the same problems. The General has asked Dewey's father to help them understand papers published by German scientists and this means he has to go to Washington. Terry Gordon offers to take in Dewey for the time Jimmy is away however, Suze is not happy with this. When she expresses her displeasure at "screwy Dewey" coming to live with them, Suze's mom becomes angry and tells her never to use that name again. Moving in with the Gordons turns out to be the least of the many challenges Dewey will face as the war moves towards its devastating conclusion.

Discussion

The Green Glass Sea offers a fascinating look into life for a very specific group of people during World War II: the children of the scientists who worked on creating the first atomic weapon. The atomic bombs dropped on Japan which resulted in the nation's surrender and the end to war in the Pacific were the first weapons of mass destruction ever used. The Green Glass Sea portrays the scientists who worked to develop the atom bomb and their families as highly intelligent people who were determined to help their country win the war in Europe and the Pacific.  These scientists were the top researchers in their fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and metallurgy. Their family circumstances were similar to those of most Americans and their children had the same problems all children face growing up.

The two main characters in the novel are two girls who do not like one another but who eventually are drawn into a bond of friendship. Dewey and Suze are very different, yet they face a common struggle to fit in and be accepted. Dewey is brilliant and interested in creating machines. But her intelligence is not the only thing that sets her apart from the other children at the Hill: she has one leg shorter than the other requiring her to wear a special shoe and she wears very thick glasses. Suze is also highly intelligent but in a different way than Dewey: she is very artistic. Like Dewey, Suze's physical appearance sets her apart from others: she is big and strong. While Dewey is quiet and thoughtful, Suze is loud, unkind and a bully. Dewey doesn't care about fitting in but to Suze, fitting in is so important that she is willing to make fun of Dewey in the hopes the other girls on the Hill will include her.  The two girls are thrown together when Dewey comes to live with Suze's family while her father is in Washington. Suze is determined not to welcome her in any way: she doesn't want Dewey to have the top drawers of the dresser, she draws a line across the room dividing their space in two and marks the days off the calendar that Dewey is at her house.

Dewey takes it all in stride; she feels sorry for Suze because the other girls never ask her to play. Over the span of the following two months, Suze's view of Dewey undergoes a radical change.  After the death of President Roosevelt, Suze begins to warm to Dewey, apologizing for damaging her cigar box and the two girls share secrets about their names. When Dewey struggles to find the right pieces for her gadget, Suze decides to help her and in the process discovers that she can make works of art from the nuts, bolts, screws and other metal pieces Dewey has collected. Suze introduces Dewey to superhero comic books. But it is a trip to the dump to look for a drawer to hold Suze's next collage that cements their friendship. When the two girls are confronted and bullied by Barbara and Joyce, they both stand up for the other. And when Dewey is orphaned, Suze shows deep concern for Dewey and is determined that she continue to live with them. "If anyone had told her two months ago that she'd be asking to let Dewey stay with her, she's have told them they were nuts. But it felt right."  The two eventually form their own club, naming it Shazam.

As they get to know each other, Suze's view of Dewey changes. She recognizes that both she and Dewey are different but while Dewey seems comfortable with herself, Suze is not. Dewey teaches Suze to accept herself as she is. Suze realizes that she can be herself with Dewey who accepts Suze as she is. "She'd never had a conversation like this with another kid. She didn't feel like she had to be funny, or try to show Dewey how smart she was..."

Historical fiction succeeds if it instills in readers an reasonably accurate understanding of the era being portrayed. Many scientists working on the Manhattan project did not know exactly what they were working to create. Because the project was so secret, only a small group of scientists knew what they were working towards. Once the testing of the bomb was successful and the immensity of its power was realized, many of the scientists who had worked on the bomb, were strongly opposed to it being used.  Klages succeeds in realistically portraying this opposition in her novel.  Dewey's father appears to recognize how powerful the "gadget" they are attempting to build will be and for that reason he hopes the Germans have not progressed as far as the American scientists.

 After the test at Trinity, and realizing the immense power of the bomb, Terry Gordon expresses serious reservations to her husband, Dick Feynman and Dr. Teller about what they have done and the possibility of using the bomb on civilians. Dewey overhears their conversation:
"She heard Dick Feynman talking, and stopped in the doorway to listen. 'Well, yes. We started for a good reason, and we've been working so hard. It was pleasure. It was excitement,' he said. 'But you stop thinking about -- you know? You just stop. And now..."
And now that we've seen what it can do. My god,' Terry Gordon said, her voice raised, sounding angry. 'They can't use it. Not on civilians. Not on anyone, for that matter. I mean, maybe as a demonstration, but--'
'That's not realistic, Terry,' said Dr. Teller in his Hungarian accent. 'It's no longer an experiment to be demonstrated. It's a weapon, to end this terrible war once and for all.'
'At what cost, Edward? At what cost? Look, Chicago's drafted a petition. If enough of us sign it, they'll have to listen, and --'

Readers learn via a short radio clip what the American government eventually decided to do and today we know that two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Klages writes in her Author's Note at the back of her novel that she chose not to focus on the bombing of the two cities because the massive loss of life resulting from the atomic bombs is very hard to comprehend and beyond portrayal. She notes that readers experience the difficulty of coming to terms with the death of one person through the character of  Dewey who has to deal with the death of her father. However, the atomic bombs killed approximately 140,000 people in the initial blast with many tens of thousands dying of burns and radiation sickness in the weeks and months that followed. Death on such a scale in incomprehensible.

The title of the novel is a reference to green glass found after the Trinity atom bomb test on July 16, 1945 near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Temperatures generated from an atom bomb explosion were so high that the sand at the Trinity test site was metamorphosed into a new rock called trinitite. Trinitite has a green colour and most of it is mildly radioactive.

The Green Glass Sea is an excellent work of historical fiction about a unique period in history. Few novels have been written for young people about the Manhattan Project and Klages has done an excellent job in making this time period come alive for young readers. It's unfortunate that the book cover is so uninviting. Klages wrote a sequel to this novel,  White Sands, Red Menace which continues the story of Dewey and Suze in the Cold War era. 

For information on the Los Alamos site, the Atomic Heritage Foundation has a webpage: https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/location/los-alamos-nm/: 

The US History website has a page devoted to the Manhattan Project:  https://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp

Book Details:
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
New York: Puffin Books     2006
318 pp.

The Girl In the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

"This is all completely insane and every new piece of information only compounds the insanity. I'm trying to find a girl who vanished from a closed house. Who cannot be reported missing, because if the police found her, it would be worse for her than if they'd never gone looking at all. "

It is January 1943. Winter in Amsterdam. Holland has been occupied for the last two and half years by Nazi Germany.

Hanneke Bakker is on her way to make her "deliveries" of black market items. Hanneke trades in the black market - the "illicit underground exchange of goods" such as potatoes, meat, and lard so her family can survive. She hunts down items that can no longer be easily found in shops such as bacon, tea and chocolate. To Miss Akkerman, her first customer on this Tuesday morning,  she brings lotions and lipstick.

Hanneke's next customer, Mrs. Janssen, has requested sausage. The Janssen's have three sons, the two older ones have moved to London and America, but the youngest son died on the Dutch front lines attempting to protect Holland's border from the German invasion. Her husband disappeared a few months ago and Hanneke never asked about his whereabouts. She offers Hanneke real coffee and stroopwafel and insists she visit. Mrs. Janssen then tells Hanneke the real reason for asking her to stay: she wants Hanneke to find a missing person.

Mrs. Janssen has been hiding a young Jewish girl in a tiny room off her pantry. Her husband Hendrik had a business partner David Roodveldt who is Jewish. The Roodveldts included wife Rose, and their two daughters Lea and fifteen year old Mirjam. In July, David came to Hendrik needing a place to hide, so David brought them to his furniture shop where he built a secret room. Mrs. Janssen did not know her husband was hiding the Roodveldts and didn't find out until one night last month when a girl wearing a pale blue coat showed up at her door. That girl was Mirjam Roodveldt. She told Mrs. Janssen about the hidden room and that someone betrayed Hendrik. The Nazis came to the factory but when Hendrik claimed he didn't know and David tried to intervene, all were murdered by the soldiers. Mirjam escaped out the front door of the factory.  Mrs. Janssen tells Hanneke that she was hiding Mirjam in the secret room in her pantry until yesterday at noon. When she returned from visiting her neighbour, Mrs. Veenstra, she discovered Mirjam was gone. Mrs. Janssen has no idea how she left the house unseen nor where she might have gone. Hanneke promises Mrs. Janssen nothing mainly because she is trying only to survive the war.

Hanneke's purpose in life at this time is to try to help her family survive, not to find missing persons. Her father is unable to work because of an injury during the Great War. Hanneke works as a receptionist for Mr. Kreuk, an undertaker. But Kreuk also has a second job for Hanneke. Using the ration cards of dead people, he stocks up on supplies and resells them at higher prices on the black market. Later on in the day after talking with Mrs. Janssen, Hanneke and her family witness their neighbour, Mr. Bierman who is Jewish being taken away by the NSB officers. Life in Amsterdam has changed so much for Hanneke and her family. Her best friend Elsbeth is now living with a German soldier. Her boyfriend Sebastian (Bas) Van de Kamp was killed on the Dutch front two years ago.

Hanneke decides to go back to Mrs. Janssen and ask her more about Mirjam. She learns that Mirjam attended the Jewish Lyceum. Even though it is now 3pm, Hanneke decides this might be the perfect time to sneak into the school unnoticed when the hallways are filled with students leaving. However, she finds the school quiet and mostly empty of students who are either in hiding or have been taken away by the Germans. At the Jewish school, Hanneke is confronted by a tall, young woman only a few years older than herself. She tells Hanneke nothing. When Hanneke returns home around 6pm she finds Bas's older brother Ollie waiting for her. Ollie, a university student, takes Hanneke for a walk and questions her about her visit to the Jewish Lyceum. Ollie reveals that the young woman Hanneke met at the school, Judith came to him because she believed Hanneke might be a Nazi scout. After pressure from Ollie, Hanneke reveals that she is looking for a fifteen-year-old girl and wants to meet Judith again to ask her. Ollie invites her to their supper club that both he and Judith, also a university student attend.

That supper club turns out to be a small resistance group that includes Ollie, Judith and her friend Sanne, Willem, Leo, and is part of a larger network. The group is struggling to provide fake ration cards for the people that they have been helping in hiding. From Judith, Hanneke learns about how the beautiful theatre, Hollandsche Schouwburg has been turned into a deportation center for the Jewish population who are shipped to the camps. Judith's cousin, Mina works in the nursery or creche which keeps the children separate from their parents until they are deported to the camps. Hanneke learns that any Jewish person who is caught up in the nightly sweeps, regardless of whether they received their deportation notice, would be sent to Schouwburg. She needs to discover if Mirjam might be in Schouwburg.

As Hanneke continues her search for Mirjam she confronts the reality of the Nazi occupation of Holland and the effect of war on the Dutch people. Hanneke also begins to discover the risks the hidden resistance takes to save even a few Jewish children. As she uncovers the truth of Mirjam's disappearance, she discovers friendship, jealousy and unintended betrayal while dealing with the loss of the boy she loved.

Discussion

The Girl In The Blue Coat is a finely crafted historical novel about life in occupied Holland. Set over the span of eight days in January of 1943, the novel follows Hanneke Bakker, whose blond hair would make her a poster girl for the Nazi party, as she searches for a missing Jewish girl.

At first Hanneke doesn't want to get involved in the mystery of Mirjam's disappearance but Hanneke undergoes a transformation over the week portrayed in the novel. Initially she is concerned only with survival, like the majority of her fellow Dutch citizens. War, occupation and the loss of her boyfriend have hardened Hanneke to some degree.  When Mrs. Janssen wants her help, Hanneke's initial reaction is "Too bad she didn't realize I don't need to be buttered up. I work for money, not kindness." Even after Mrs. Janssen tells her story, Hanneke states "The explanation doesn't matter, really. I can't help her, no matter how sad her story is. It's too dangerous. Survival first. That's my war motto. After Bas, it might be my life motto...Now I transport black market goods, but only because it feeds me and my family. I flirt with German soldiers, but only because it saves me. Finding a missing girl does nothing for me at all."

Hanneke insists she is a different person from the one she was before the war. She doesn't believe she can change a situation that is much bigger than her small world.  "Finding this girl is not who I am anymore. That action is soft; I am practical. That action is hopeful; I am not. The world is crazy; I can't change it." She tells Mrs. Janssen that she will consider finding Mirjam but as Hanneke begins to learn about Mirjam she finds herself drawn into becoming  "an accidental member of the resistance."  And she finds herself drawn into asking "Mirjam. Where did you go?"  Hanneke decides to help Mrs. Janssen partly as an act of rebellion against the Nazis, partly to try to put a bit of order into her "corner of the world" but also as "a way of finding the person I used to be." 

When it appears that Mirjam has been caught in a sweep and is at the dreadful Hollandsche Schouwburg, Hanneke becomes determined to free her and prevent her from being taken to the camps. Ollie tells her that his group cannot help her and that they cannot risk the resistance network for one girl. But Hanneke responds, "I know your 'greater good', Ollie, but if the good that you're working so hard for is one that won't work to rescue a fifteen-year-old girl, then is it worth it anyway? What kind of society are you trying to save?" 

Hesse builds the tension in her story with numerous plot twists that lead to the revelation of what really happened to Mirjam and her best friend, Amalia. The terrible tragedy plays out despite Hanneke and the resistance group's efforts. Like her own situation with Bas, there are unintended consequences of certain actions. Just as Amalia unwittingly revealed Mirjam's family's secret hiding place leading to the death of four people, Hanneke's pressuring of Bas to sign up led to his death. Hanneke did not believe Bas would die and feels enormous guilt over his death, just as Amalia felt enormous guilt over what happened to Mirjam's family. However, unlike Amalia who tried to fix her mistake, Hanneke can never undo what she's done. She comes to realize that doing good deeds will never make her feel better about the loss of Bas, but that healing is possible. "Maybe we can't barter our feelings away, trading good deeds for bad ones and expecting to be whole."

Hesse also effectively portrays the effect of war on people; how fear and the desire to survive at all cost changes people so that they no longer resist evil but unwittingly co-operate by simply doing nothing. For example Hanneke notes that after Mr. Bierman is arrested, "the shop assistant is selling vegetables to a customer, as though the store's owner wasn't just put into a truck and carted away, as though Mrs. Bierman's world wasn't just turned upside down."

When Hanneke and Willem watch one of the forced marches from the Schouwburg, Hanneke notes how people simply ignore what is happening. "The prisoners follow, carrying suitcases, disheveled and tired like they haven't slept in days. The crowd is big, maybe seventy people, and the soldiers march them down the middle of the street. It's a lovely winter day in Amsterdam, and though there are other people on the street, couples like me and Willem, nobody acts like the forced parade of people is out of the ordinary. Our sense of the ordinary has become horrifying."

Hesse also touches on the Dutch citizens who were on friendly terms with their Nazi occupiers and how they were thought of by their fellow citizens. This is done through Hanneke's friend Elsbeth. Hanneke and Elsbeth were close friends for twelve years but their friendship died when Elsbeth became involved with a German soldier and eventually married him. Hanneke refuses to attend Elsbeth and Rolf's wedding and she grieves over how the Nazi's poison everything.

There's plenty of references to some of the resistance actions by the Dutch and to how the Dutch Jewish population suffered. In this way Hesse creates a realistic setting for novel so that readers get a true sense of the what the Nazi occupation was like. Ollie, who it is revealed is a homosexual, confides his secret to Hanneke but questions her as to whether she will tell. Even at the end of the novel when Hanneke expresses her happiness over the defeat of the Nazi's at Stalingrad, she experiences momentary fear that the woman on the train may be a Nazi sympathizer.

The Girl In The Blue Coat is a combination of historical fiction, mystery and adventure. It has a strong heroine and an interesting supporting cast of characters.

Book Details:

The Girl In The Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
New York: Little, Brown & Company    2016
301 pp.