Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer

Sixteen-year-old Henny Sinding lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with Mor (her mother) and Far (her father).  Henny has grown up on the waters of the channel, learning how to sail before she could walk.Their boat, the Gerda III is "Henny's home away from home."

Far, a naval officer in Copenhagen, is head of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service. It is his job to supply the Drogden Lighthouse, situated at the south end of the channel. Helping on the Gerda are two crewmembers, Otto and Gerhardt who have worked as engineers as long as their father has.

On a warm, sunny day, with Henny steering the boat, Far's attention is drawn to a small boat flying the Nazi flag. The Nazis have occupied Denmark, for the last three years, since 1940 when King Christian X surrendered to Adolf Hitler. He was hoping to spare his country the horrors others had experienced at the hands of the Nazis. Now in 1943, the situation appears to be changing; more Nazi troops marching on the streets and now boats in the channel.

Far doesn't want to catch the attention of the Nazi boat so he orders Henny to cut the engines. This time they are lucky, the Nazi boat does not pursue them and they return to shore safely. On their way home, Henny notices her father is unusually quiet. At dinner Far reveals that the lighthouse staff told him Nazi boats have stopped at the lighthouse and the men have been interrogated by the Nazi police.  They wanted to know who stops at the lighthouse and were considering using it as a base. Mor wonders if the Nazis are planning to take control in Denmark, as they've done in other countries. Mor and Far, like their fellow Danes, are appalled at Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people. Fortunately Danish Jews are respected and their rights are the same as everyone else. 

After dinner Henny is paid a visit by her ten-year-old neighbour, Suzanne Rubin along with Suzanne's two-year-old brother Aron. The Rubins are Jewish. Henny promises to take Suzanne sailing in two days. At school the next day, Henny meets up with her friends, sixteen-year-old Lukas, and Emma and Sophia, twin sisters. Henny is not a good student, preferring sailing to studying. When the bell rings to announce the school day, Henny notices papers that fall out of Lukas' bag, with the Nazi swastika crossed out. But when she asks Lukas what the papers are, he tells they are nothing.

The next day Henny takes Suzanne sailing after having done a run to the lighthouse with Far. She meets Mr. Rubin at the Gerda's berth and assures him that she will walk Suzanne home after their boat ride. Out on the water all goes  well until Henny spots a boat flying the Nazi flag moving towards them. Otto and Gerhardt take down the sails and after starting up the motor they head back to shore.

The next day Henny corners Lukas in the schoolyard and learns that he's part of the Danish resistance, passing out pamphlets outlining the evils of the Nazis. When Henny reminds Lukas of the extreme danger, he asks her if she's heard what is happening to Jews in other countries. Lukas challenges Henny to speak out against the Nazis, reminding her that she is friends with a Jewish family who is at risk and as the Nazis appear to be preparing to do in Denmark, what they've done in other countries. He also asks her to keep his secret. On her way home, Henny witnesses an elderly Jewish man being arrested by Nazi soldiers. When a young man attempts to intervene, he too is arrested. At home, Henny tells Far and Mor what she saw and they confirm what Lukas told her. The Nazis are attempting to tighten their control over Denmark. 

This leads Henny to consider that maybe it's time she started to get involved. The next day Henny approaches Lukas to tell him she wants to join his resistance group. A few days later, Lukas tells her to meet him later that night outside the train station. Little does Henny know, the important role she will come to play in helping save hundreds of Danish Jews.

Discussion

Call Across The Sea is the fourth and final installment in the Heroes Quartet that focuses on ordinary people who acted courageously to save Jewish citizens from the Nazis. In Call Across The Sea, the focus is on Denmark and the efforts of Henny Sinding, who is credited with saving many Danish Jews. As Kacer acknowledges in her note entitled Who Was Henny Sinding?, Henny was actually twenty-two years old when the events described in the novel occurred. 

In real life, in 1943, Henny was approached by four crew members of the boat, Gerda III. They were Captain Einer Tonnesen, and crew members John Hansen, Otto Andersen and Gerhardt Steffensen. The Nazi's had occupied Denmark since 1940 and seemed uninterested in Danish Jews. But they suddenly decided to round up all of Denmark's Jews and deport them to concentration camps in one night. This operation was leaked to a prominent Dane who then set about helping his country's Jewish citizens. The Gerda crew had a plan to get these people to safety in Sweden, an unoccupied country, by sea. But to do so would require Henny's help by obtaining permission from her father, who as a Danish naval officer, was in charge of the Lighthouse and Buoy Service. This was not a problem. They also needed Henny's help in bringing those Jewish families in hiding to the boats to be rescued.

With connections to a university-based resistance group, Henny was given a list of people, where to meet them. She set about retrieving these people, who were eventually rescued by boat to Sweden. At least three hundred Jews were secreted to safety on the Gerda III during the month of October by Henny and the crew. You can read more about Henny Sinding  at the Museum of Jewish History: https://mjhnyc.org/blog/the-22-year-old-woman-behind-the-rescue-of-over-300-danish-jews/

Call Across The Sea portrays the basic elements of Henny's amazing story in a format that is appealing to younger readers. A map showing the location of Copenhagen, Denmark relative to Sweden would have been very helpful for readers, allowing them to appreciate better the risks Henny undertook to help her fellow countrymen.

Kacer captures the essence of the situation in Denmark in a realistic manner. The Danish people considered their Jewish neighbours to be no different from themselves, and this is reflected in the characters of Far and Mor, Henny, Otto and Gerhardt as well as Lukas. A hint of their courageous resistance is portrayed by Henny, Lukas and other resisters but Kacer also shows that there were some Danes, represented by Henny's classmate, Erik who were not so honourable. Call Across The Sea is a fitting conclusion to the Heroes Quartet, which featured some lesser known heroes of World War II, who risked everything to help those in their most desperate hour.

Book Details:

Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press   2021
207 pp.

Louder Than Words by Kathy Kacer

Twelve-year-old Eldina Sternik lives with her mother and her younger sisters, six-year-old Gennadiy (Nadia) and baby Galya. They are Jews who live in the city of Proskurov, Ukraine. Dina's Papa had died a year earlier and her mother is planning to take over his job as a literature teacher at the local high school. Working fulltime means that the Sternik's need a housekeeper and to that end they hire Mrs. Pukas, who is a Catholic and who goes by the name of Nina. Although she is friendly and kind, Dina is reluctant to like her.

It is February, 1941 and there are reports that Hitler has invaded the Ukraine.Dina and her family have heard of the laws against Jewish citizens passed in other countries that Germany has invaded. There has been a long history of persecution of the Jews but so far only isolated incidents are happening.

When Dina's mother returns to work as a teacher, Nina begins walking Dina and Nadia to school every day with baby Gayla in the baby carriage. Their walk to school meant passing by Mrs. Timko who ran a candy shop in Proskurov. She was the happiest person Dina had ever seen and she always offered the children passing by her store a treat.

At school Dina meets up with her best friend Esther. In the playground, Avrum,one of the Jewish students is bullied by Ivan and a group of boys. One of the teachers, Mr. Petrenko approaches the boys to intervene but stops and doesn't move to help even when Dina begs him to do so. When Dina realizes no one will help Avrum she intervenes and stands up to Ivan. Later that night Dina's mother warns her to be careful, that incidents like this are happening at her high school too.

When Nina asks Dina to teach her more about the Jewish faith, Dina decides to take the housekeeper to the local library. However, she discovers that Nina can't read, so Dina sets out to teach her. This act of kindness will save their lives in the not too distant future. 

In early spring, Dina and Esther set out to have a picnic in the park. However, when they arrive at the park, they find signs stating that Jews are no longer permitted in the park. While Dina wants to defy the order, Esther is worried someone might see them and the two girls return home.

At home, Dina's mother tells them they must not draw attention to themselves. However, the situation rapidly deteriorates over the coming weeks. Dina, Esther and all the other Jewish students are moved to the back of their class in school.Then Mama comes home one day with a bag of yellow Stars of David that must be sewn onto all of their clothing. Then one morning on her walk to school, Mrs. Timko refuses to give candy to Dina. Even worse, Jews were no longer allowed to shop in stores and had to obey a curfew. Even worse, Mama and the other Jewish teachers are let go at the high school. 

But their life takes a turn for the worse when their house is set on fire by the Nazis. Although they are taken in by Mama's brother, they need a new plan as Dina's Uncle Leo and Aunt Maria are not keen to take them in. The daring plan Dina's mother devises might just save all of them!

Discussion

Louder Than Words is based on the true story of  Frima Sternik, a Jewish high school teacher who lived in Proskurov with her daughters and her Catholic housekeeper, Nina Pukas. As in the novel, Frima's home was destroyed by fire along with her important identity documents. To protect her children, she registered her children as belonging to Pukas, giving her children a chance to be protected from the Nazis. Although Frima did not survive the war, her children did, thanks to the efforts of Nina Pukas.

Kacer, whose own parents survived the Holocaust, successfully portrays the wide range of people and their beliefs during the Nazi occupation.  The novel includes both Christians who helped their Jewish neighbours as well as others sided with the Nazis and joined in the persecution. For example, the character, Mrs. Timko who owns a candy store in Proskurov, is described as "the happiest woman" and a "devout churchgoing woman who was always talking about what the Lord did and didn't do for us. She crossed herself and looked up to the sky as if she was waiting for someone or something to answer her."  However, when the Nazis invade Proskurov and persecution against the Jewish population begins, Mrs. Timko is one of the first to single out Dina and her family and other Jews by refusing her candy. 

There is Mr. Petrenko, Dina's teacher who doesn't support the Nazis but who is too afraid to act, even among children who are bullying Jewish students. Yet he does try to help in his own small way when Dina goes looking for her mother who has disappeared. And of course the focus of the story is Nina Pukas, in real life, Ludviga (Nina) Pukas, a Catholic who risked her own life to take on the care of the Sternik children. If she had been discovered by the Nazis, Nina Pukas would have been executed for hiding Jews. Her actions speak "louder than words", the title of the novel.

However, Kacer gets it wrong when she has Nina tell Dina about the "blood libel". When Nina expresses an interest in learning more about the Jewish faith she tells Dina that "My own church teaches us that Jewish people tortured Christian children -- even sacrificed a child once during the Easter celebration." This has NEVER been a teaching of the Catholic church and it is misinformation to imply that it ever was. It is not known when the myth of blood libel began but it dates back to Roman times into the Middle Ages where it gained some acceptance. It was opposed by many popes, among them Pope Gregory X who noted that his predecessors held the same, and who wrote, “Most falsely do these Christians claim that the Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifice from the heart and blood of these children, since their law in this matter precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws. This has been demonstrated many times at our court by Jews converted to the Christian faith: nevertheless very many Jews are often seized and detained unjustly because of this.”

So while this may have been a horrific belief amongst Catholics and Christians that persisted into the 20th century and while it might have fueled the antisemitism so rampant throughout Europe, it was NEVER a teaching of the Catholic church as Nina Pukas suggests in the novel and it is wrong to teach young readers that it was. 

In this third of four books in the Heroes Quartet, Kacer effectively portrays the drastic situation that develops for Jews in the Ukraine, once they are invaded by the Nazis. But Kacer also demonstrates just  how fortunate Dina and her sisters are, especially once Dina sees the ghetto where her mother has been imprisoned and where she also recognizes her friend Esther, by her red coat. They do not survive the war.

Louder Than Words is another well written novel for younger readers that features a true heroine, Ludviga (Nina) Pukas whose brave actions were "louder than words". The back matter features a short Author's Note about the Nazi invasion of Proskurov and about the real life events that inspired the novel.

Sources:

https://sites.sju.edu/ijcr/2020/04/01/blood-libel-never-a-church-teaching-says-prominent-us-catholic-academic-as-defenders-of-antisemitic-italian-painting-come-forward/

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/g10-jews.asp 

Book Details:

Louder Than Words by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press 2020
231 pp.

The Sound of Freedom by Kathy Kacer

The Sound of Freedom is a fictionalized account of a young girl whose family manages to escape Poland with the help of  world-renowned violinist, Bronislaw Huberman. Huberman was a child prodigy who studied with Joseph Joachim. He began touring Europe when he was only fourteen. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Huberman surmised that the situation for Jews in Europe would only get worse. Although he left Germany for Austria he found the situation not much better. It was apparent the situation for the Jewish people would only worsen. So he began to plan to bring the best Jewish musicians to Palestine to form an orchestra. This novel tells of one family's hope to be part of that historic event. 

Twelve-year-old Anna Hirsch lives in Krakow with her father, Avrum Hirsch who is a gifted clarinetist and her Baba. Anna's father plays in the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra and also lectures at the music academy.

The novel opens with Anna and her best friend Renata stopping at Mrs. Benna's shop on the way home on a Tuesday afternoon while her father gives lessons.While snacking on their donuts they witness a group of boys who have lately been targeting Jewish kids try to bully Mrs Benna. She stands up to them and they leave. However when Anna and Renata are walking home they see the boys vandalizing the window of  Mr. Kaplansky's butcher shop while the police chief Constable Zabek watches without intervening. At home Anna tells her papa and her baba about what happened and she is warned to stay away from the boys. That night they listen world famous violinist Bronislaw Huberman play a violin concerto by Tchaikovsky. However the radio broadcast is interrupted by a speech by Adolf Hitler. In his speech Hitler promises to provide jobs and good schools to all German citizens, to build a strong army to defend the country and to start by "cleansing Germany of all Jews. Country after country will follow."

However Anna's father refuses to talk about Hitler or what's happening in Poland. At school the next day Anna and Renata are confronted by Sabina Zabek who tells them that soon they won't be allowed to attend any school. After school Anna misses Renata who has indicated she has something important to tell Anna, so she visits her father's orchestra rehearsal. She is stunned to see all the Jewish members of the orchestra segregated at the back of the orchestra and not in their respective sections. She is so upset that her clarinet lesson with her father is a disaster.

During the next two weeks, there are more attacks on Jewish businesses, the headlines in the newspapers are decidely anti-Jewish. Anna's friend Stephan Ungar tells her that his father has said they will not be kicked out school, that these are isolated incidents and that this troubled time will pass, but Anna is unconvinced. They meet Renata who finally reveals that her family is fleeing Poland for Denmark in a week's time. Renata states that her parents want to leave before the situation worsens, especially since it is so difficult for Jews to obtain papers to travel to another country and that many countries do not want to take in Jewish immigrants. Anna is desolate, partly because she knows her best friend is right and partly because her own family seems reluctant to acknowledge what is happening all over Poland and Germany.

Anna confides in Baba about Renata's family leaving but her grandmother attempts to calm her by telling her everything will be fine. However Anna tells her about what she saw at orchestra practice, confronting Baba and demanding she tell her the truth. Baba tells Anna about the "ghetto chairs" for the musicians but she believes that they will be safe.

That night Papa tells them about Bronislaw Huberman's trip to Poland to recruit musicians for an orchestra in Palestine. Papa tells Anna and Baba that Huberman is inviting Jewish musicians to audition. When Anna hears this she attempts to convince her father to audition by telling him everything that she has witnessed in the streets. However her father refuses to believe that the situation is dire, stating that their lives are in Poland and they cannot simply leave for something so uncertain. Anna is completely devastated. How can she convince her father that they must leave Poland and that Huberman's auditions may be their only way out?

Discussion

The Sound of Freedom portrays a real life event that occurred just before the onset of World War II through the eyes of a young girl. The Hirsch family is fictional; there was no Avrum Hirsch who was a clarinetist  recruited by Bronislaw Huberman. But Huberman did recruit seventy musicians for his Palestine Orchestra which was formed in 1936.  At a time when getting travel documents was almost impossible for people of Jewish heritage, somehow Huberman managed to obtain enough to bring not only the musicians but their families too. The novel covers the period up to the historic concert given by the Palestine Symphony Orchestra on December 26, 1936, conducted by Maestro Toscanini.

Kacer seamlessly incorporates many historical facts into her novel; the increasingly violent harassment of Jews in Poland, Huberman's method of auditioning musicians, the difficulties he encountered obtaining visas, the theft of his Stradivarius violin, and life in British Mandate Palestine. Kacer mentions some of the challenges Anna and her fellow emigrants experienced in moving to Palestine, including learning Hebrew and dealing with attacks on the area by Arabs. Life in Palestine would most certainly have been vastly different for European Jews who settled there.

 

Toscanni and Huberman Palestine Symphony Orchestra

When Anna's friend Eric and his family decide to return to Poland, Anna is distraught. Although Palestine is also struggling with conflict, the Jewish people are safer than in Europe and Anna wonders about the fate of Eric. Some musicians and their families did decide to return to Europe. Those who did, would not survive the war. Near the end of the novel, Anna learns that Bronislaw Huberman brought over one thousands Jews to Palestine and as history now knows - saving these gifted musicians and their families -from the death camps of Adolf Hitler. If only more people had acted, how many more could have been saved?

Kacer is a Canadian author whose parents are survivors of the Holocaust; her mother survived by hiding and her father survived the death camps. The novel was written at the suggestion of the publisher, Annick Press. The Sound of Freedom is the first in what will be a series of four books called the Heroes Quartet. The next installment, a book about the famous French mime artist Marcel Marceau is due out March 2019. In light of the recent poll that suggests many children under the age of fourteen do not know what the word Holocaust refers to, Kacer's novel is all the more timely.

Readers are encouraged to view the documentary, Orchestra of Exiles which examines Huberman's efforts to put together an orchestra in Palestine and preserve some of the Jewish musical heritage which he felt certain would be destroyed by the coming cataclysm.

Information on the Palestine Symphony Orchestra can be found at the Jewish Virtual Library: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-palestine-symphony-orchestra

Image credit: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/orchestra-of-exiles/files/2013/03/1246.jpg

Book Details:

The Sound of Freedom by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press Ltd.      2017
249 pp.