Historical fiction set during WWII and I am hooked. This was a wonderful book that covered three different stories. You have a young boy, Isaak and his mother who are captured and moved from one concentration camp to another. Izaak’s innocence and naivety are both sweet and scary. My heart ached as he approached each change with hope and a positive expectation. The second story involved an SS officer who was appalled at the atrocities being done to the people who were “assigned” to the “work camps.” His willingness to share the horrors with an American contact, even though it put his life at risk, was admirable. Then you have the Müeller family. Though they live in the U.S., they are viewed as enemies of the States because they immigrated from Germany. The three stories flow freely as each chapter focuses on a different character. The author has done an amazing amount of research. I had just learned about the camps for German POWs during WWII. I am glad to have learned more about this facet during the war. This book is emotionally heartwrenching. You will be pulled into the book and will be held captive to the end. Put this at the top of your to-be-read list.

Thank you to NetGalley and Book Circle Press for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

This historical fiction, When We Were Brave, is about suffering and perseverance.

The novel shows us Wilhelm an SS officer who risks everything to escape the Wehrmacht and spread the word about the death camps.

A Riveting and emotional page-turner.

When We Were Brave follows three main characters during WW II, what happens to them is truly heartbreaking, they all suffer terribly and endure severe hardship and unbearable loss.

Wilhelm Falk is an SS officer, he’s married to Ilse, and has two sons Hans and Dietrich. He’s horrified by what the Nazi’s are doing to Jewish people in the concentration camps, he wants to expose their crimes, and let the world know what’s really happening. While in Italy, he fakes his own death, changes into a regular German soldier’s uniform and becomes Klaus Stern. Wilhelm becomes a prisoner of war and is sent to America, and he’s determined to escape. He needs to contact Pastor Theodore Graf and retrieve the important information he sent to him about what the Nazi's are doing in the extermination camps.

Izaak Tauber’s eight, he lives in Amsterdam, his mother Rachel’s a midwife and his father Saul is Jewish, he's been arrested, and sent to a camp. Rachel and Izaak try to escape Amsterdam, they end up being captured, Izaak still continues to draw when he can, and believes they will find his father in one of the concentration camps.

Herbert Muller lives in Pennsylvania, he’s of German heritage, and he’s married to Jutta, and has two children Alfred and Frieda. His parents Otto and Anni immigrated to America after WW I, and wanted a better life for their son Herbert. They work hard over the years, own a corn grinding mill and an orchard. When Otto’s arrested as an enemy alien, Herbert goes with him, thinking it will be a simple matter to sort out, and the whole situation will turn into an absolute nightmare.

When We Were Brave by Karla M. Jay is well written, her research has been thorough, you feel a real connection to the characters, at times it’s very hard to read and very different to other historical fiction books I have read about WW II and the holocaust. Thanks to NetGalley for my copy, I felt so many emotions reading this story, and you discover the link between the three main characters and four stars from me.

When We Were Brave follows the lives of 3 different people during WW2. One of whom is a 8 year old Jew who clings to the hope of being reunited with his father, another of whom is a German living in America who is arrested due to his ancestry and the last of the three is an SS officer who became so ashamed of the atrocities being committed in the concertation camps that he determined to inform any government that would listen.

If you love reading historical fiction set in WW2 and then this is a great one of which I would highly recommend.

#WhenWeWereBrave #NetGalley

This was a tough book to get through, though well written and historically well researched, but it was everything the characters endured that made this difficult for me. You root for them, you feel for them and that's what I think I found so hard, there was just so much and it felt like it just kept coming at all of them. None of them were hopeless which is what makes this worth reading. It's a heavy story with hope where you don't expect there to be, it's well written and well worth the time because everyone should learn from history. I would read more from this Author and I enjoyed this, though it was a very heavy read in our current climate. I would absolutely recommend. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This story took me a long time to get through overall. The story follows the timeline of three very different people/families and their hardships faced during World War II.

I loved the way the author grew the characters and their arcs to really come to life. I wanted to shout in triumph for Wilhelm, scream and cry for Otto and the Mueller family, and I wanted to sob for Izaak.

The reason this one took me so long to get through was because I didn’t want it to end. I became attached to the characters in a way that I didn’t want to know what happened to them. I didn’t want to have my fears come true. However, this is one of those books that you just have to read.

Heartbreaking.
Well written Holocaust story.
Courageous.
Teary.
A part of history.
Memorable.
Unforgettable plot.
All and more.
If I could give 10 stars here. I would give it.

I found that this book was very well written. it had the right amount of hope and heartbreak and would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking to read more and become more educated about the holocaust.

These three stories were heartbreaking and emotional. The writing style is beautiful and the characters will stay with you.
Many thanks to Book Circle Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a different type of story, I hadn’t read any with these different perspectives in this World War II story. It was interesting to see the different points of view and it was nice to see them come together. Of course it was heartbreaking to read what people of that time had to go through to survive.

Karla M. Jay's When We Were Brave contains three story lines that take place during World War II. It took a while to connect to the characters, but as the three plots thickened the book became an engrossing way to learn about varying experiences in World War II.

"A man's true worth is the good he does in the world."

A common thread among the characters is that each tries to do good in the world. An SS Officer risks all to tell the world about Germany's Final Solution. A German American family in Pennsylvania endures prejudice and harassment; yet, they help others. A nine year old Half Jewish boy suffers in hiding and in concentration camps while using his art to mentally escape and to hope for better days.

This book highlights daily details of living through World War II from the experiences of characters with different backgrounds.

Poignant World War II Novel That Will Literally TEAR APART ANYONE with a HEART & SOUL!

"When We Were Brave" is a both heartbreaking and still, in some ways, an uplifting semi-fictional novel that kind of reminds me of Martha Hall Kelly's popular novel, "Lilac Girls" — and though it has certain distinct differences, for the most part its pretty similar, if not even, basically the male equivalent of "Lilac Girls".

Set between November 1943 to September 1945, "When We Were Brave" is about World War II and the Holocaust, told through the eyes of 3 men (actually 2 men and one young boy) each with a different position and perspective of what happened. They are:

* Wilhelm Falk, a former CEO of the film division at Eastman Kodak Stuttgart, and an elite SS officer (a Sturmbannführer) who has become extremely disillusioned and anti-Nazi after witnessing first-hand, the oppression & even mass murder taking place in the concentration camps & death camps of the Third Reich. Although Falk himself never committed any crimes against humanity (as far as I can tell) nevertheless, he is conscience-stricken at the part he played, including standing by helpless, watching as scores of people were killed, and not knowing how to stop it. He is totally sickened, infuriated & ashamed as he realizes that the TRUE purpose of the war was NOT about protecting their families from the Russians as he’d been led to believe but to the contrary, was about the COMPLETE ANNIHILATION of Jewish people & others deemed to be “inferior” and “unfit to live” by the Nazis. Wracked with guilt, Wilhelm Falk is desperate to stop the genocide. So, despite risking almost-certain death if he’s caught, he carefully documents all the atrocities being perpetrated in Nazi-occcupied Europe during his service with the SS, and decides to “defect” both the SS and Europe itself — and try to get to the United States in order to PERSONALLY hand all the proof that he has amassed over to the American government. Faking his death by switching his identity with that of Klaus Stern, a low-ranking German soldier of the 10th Army Division, killed in Italy, Wilhelm Falk (now Klaus Stern) joins a group of German soldiers surrendering to the Americans, to be taken to POW camps in the United States.

* Herbert Müller, a German-born American farmer who is living quietly & peacefully in Pennsylvania with his family when they are harassed & assaulted by neighbors because of their German heritage/ethnicity. Afraid for themselves and their other German-American neighbors, the Müllers report the attack(s) to the FBI, and unfortunately that turns out to be a HUGE mistake and the beginning of the end of the Müller family as they knew it & it had once been. After reporting the attack(s) to the FBI, despite Herbert being an American citizen, and his aging (70-something) father, Otto, a German citizen having lived in the US for over 2 decades (since 1920), they are declared by the government to be “enemy aliens” and imprisoned first in makeshift detention centers at a local high school and a nearby factory, and eventually they are taken to Ellis Island. Meanwhile, in Herbert & Otto’s absence, the rest of the Müller family (Herbert’s wife, Jutta and his teenage son, Alfred and young daughter, Frieda) struggles to survive, as their bank accounts are frozen, their income & customers dry up and they are ostracized by everyone (friends, neighbors & acquaintances) in the community, branded as “traitors” — bogus, trumped-up charges based on faulty evidence, prejudice, exaggerations & outlandish, illogical theories.For example, the fact that the Müller family bellongs to a German-speaking Lutheran church, and owns a radio (to listen to music & radio programs) is spun & distorted in order to claim that its a shortwave radio and that the Müllers are using it to send secret messages to Germany. Never mind the fact that the Müllers don’t know anybody in Germany other than a few distant relatives, with whom they have had no contact with since the war began nearly 2 years earlier. Even such innocuous things as the Müller family attending a German festival is incredibly considered valid grounds to deem these AMERICAN CITIZENS as “enemy aliens”. Eventually Jutta, Alfred and Frieda join Herbert and Otto on Ellis Island where after a shocking incident, they make the agonizing decision to be “repatriated” back to war-torn Germany. Unfortunately their return just increases the tragedy in all their lives.

* Izaak Tauber, a young Dutch boy living in Amsterdam who is considered a “Mischlinge” due to having a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. After the deportation of Izaak's father, it becomes necessary for Izaak and his mother go into hiding with the help of the Dutch Resistance. Unfortunately when their escape plans go awry mid-stream in the worst possible way, and they are arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the camps, they will have to rely on their wits, strength and Izaak's skill in drawing if they are too have any hope of surviving.

"When We Were Brave" not only tells the stories of these 3 men and their families during the final 2 years or so (from November 11, 1943 to September 1945) of World War II, but also how their lives intersect with each other as well as others they know, in surprising, and heartbreaking and/or uplifting ways.

This is a GREAT novel based on true historical fact, and it is so poignant it will rip out the heart & soul of anyone who has one. It is a riveting book that I struggled to put down before I finished.

HIGHLY recommend!

WHEN WE WERE BRAVE
BY KARLA M. JAY

This is probably the most distinct and visceral viewpoints of World War II books that I have ever read. It follows the trajectories of three very different voices tell their stories through the eyes of innocence. All of the character's rattle around my mind like ghost's clawing their grip on my memory not allowing me to ever forget them. There is Wilhelm Falk who is a deeply ashamed ex SS Major who fakes his own death to intentionally get captured by the Allied forces, become a POW and be sent to America, so he can get his written notes and photographs of Hitler's death camps into the hands of somebody powerful enough to locate these death camps and stop them.

In the Netherlands through the eyes of an eight year old child named Izaak Tauber I was able to view the naivety of only someone his age. The belief when his father is dragged away the same way his best friend's family is that it is only temporary. He believes since his father is a talented engineer that he is needed to build something important. Izaak is a talented sketch artist whose drawings will keep him and his mother stay alive longer by being sent to Terezin. Terezin is a propaganda camp that was part of Hitler's schemes to fool the Red Cross who were visiting that the camp was beautified with stores with an abundance of food, where children went to school and whose inhabitants were fattened up so as to fool the world that these camps were a pleasant place to inhabit. Through Izaak's eyes the camp is putting on a play for the Red Cross to visit. After the Red Cross leaves Terezin goes back to being horrific.

Herbert Muller and his family live in Pennsylvania where his father emigrated from Germany after World War I and have settled down being patriotic German-American farmers. They begin getting threatened by thuggish teens and believe they are safe. In reality America had 12,000 German-American's arrested as enemy aliens and sent them to internment camps around the Country. Herbert Muller, his 70 year old father and his daughter, son and wife were sent to the Ellis Island one. After the rape of his thirteen year old daughter in the camp he decided to repatriate back to Germany. Herbert Muller's story is based on historical facts. An unknown number of the German-American's who were promised safe passage back to Germany died because they were not given the promised safe chaperoned returns. Once they entered a war torn Germany they lost all of their belongings and property in the United States which restitution was never received. Some chose never to come back to the United States to live.

The character of Wilhelm Falk is based on the real life of Kurt Gerstein who was a German SS officer who wrote letters with his gathered information of the horrors and mass extinctions to Pope Pius XII, and to both Swedish and Swiss diplomats trying to alert the international public about the atrocities he witnessed. He was both deeply ashamed and horrified what he had witnessed but nobody he wrote to thought there was anything they could do.

To say that the experience of reading this historical work of fiction was easy I would be lying if I said it was. It gutted me in its heartbreaking depiction of the evil and cruelties that happened knowing that much of it is based on historical fact. There is also a part of me that is grateful that I read it because I learned things that I haven't read about before about the Holocaust and World War II. New things that I learned that inspires me to further research like Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who was an Austrian artist who Izaak had for an art teacher at Terezin. She packed 5,000 pieces of the children's artwork into two suitcases and hid them away until in 1964 the publication of the book, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," incorporated the children's artwork and Poetry and got worldwide attention. I do highly recommend this book, "WHEN WE WERE BRAVE," by Karla M. Jay to readers of all genres but specifically to those who like history. I know that I will never forget it. If I could give this 100-plus stars I would.

Publication Date: April 10, 2019 (Year is correct)

Thank you to Net Galley, Karla M. Jay and Book Circle Press Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
1 like


READING PROGRESWHEN WE WERE BRAVE
BY KARLA M. JAY

This is probably the most distinct and visceral viewpoints of World War II books that I have ever read. It follows the trajectories of three very different voices tell their stories through the eyes of innocence. All of the character's rattle around my mind like ghost's clawing their grip on my memory not allowing me to ever forget them. There is Wilhelm Falk who is a deeply ashamed ex SS Major who fakes his own death to intentionally get captured by the Allied forces, become a POW and be sent to America, so he can get his written notes and photographs of Hitler's death camps into the hands of somebody powerful enough to locate these death camps and stop them.

In the Netherlands through the eyes of an eight year old child named Izaak Tauber I was able to view the naivety of only someone his age. The belief when his father is dragged away the same way his best friend's family is that it is only temporary. He believes since his father is a talented engineer that he is needed to build something important. Izaak is a talented sketch artist whose drawings will keep him and his mother stay alive longer by being sent to Terezin. Terezin is a propaganda camp that was part of Hitler's schemes to fool the Red Cross who were visiting that the camp was beautified with stores with an abundance of food, where children went to school and whose inhabitants were fattened up so as to fool the world that these camps were a pleasant place to inhabit. Through Izaak's eyes the camp is putting on a play for the Red Cross to visit. After the Red Cross leaves Terezin goes back to being horrific.

Herbert Muller and his family live in Pennsylvania where his father emigrated from Germany after World War I and have settled down being patriotic German-American farmers. They begin getting threatened by thuggish teens and believe they are safe. In reality America had 12,000 German-American's arrested as enemy aliens and sent them to internment camps around the Country. Herbert Muller, his 70 year old father and his daughter, son and wife were sent to the Ellis Island one. After the rape of his thirteen year old daughter in the camp he decided to repatriate back to Germany. Herbert Muller's story is based on historical facts. An unknown number of the German-American's who were promised safe passage back to Germany died because they were not given the promised safe chaperoned returns. Once they entered a war torn Germany they lost all of their belongings and property in the United States which restitution was never received. Some chose never to come back to the United States to live.

The character of Wilhelm Falk is based on the real life of Kurt Gerstein who was a German SS officer who wrote letters with his gathered information of the horrors and mass extinctions to Pope Pius XII, and to both Swedish and Swiss diplomats trying to alert the international public about the atrocities he witnessed. He was both deeply ashamed and horrified what he had witnessed but nobody he wrote to thought there was anything they could do.

To say that the experience of reading this historical work of fiction was easy I would be lying if I said it was. It gutted me in its heartbreaking depiction of the evil and cruelties that happened knowing that much of it is based on historical fact. There is also a part of me that is grateful that I read it because I learned things that I haven't read about before about the Holocaust and World War II. New things that I learned that inspires me to further research like Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who was an Austrian artist who Izaak had for an art teacher at Terezin. She packed 5,000 pieces of the children's artwork into two suitcases and hid them away until in 1964 the publication of the book, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," incorporated the children's artwork and Poetry and got worldwide attention. I do highly recommend this book, "WHEN WE WERE BRAVE," by Karla M. Jay to readers of all genres but specifically to those who like history. I know that I will never forget it. If I could give this 100-plus stars I would.

Publication Date: April 10, 2019 (Year is correct)

Thank you to Net Galley, Karla M. Jay and Book Circle Press Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
1 like


READING PROGRESWHEN WE WERE BRAVE
BY KARLA M. JAY

This is probably the most distinct and visceral viewpoints of World War II books that I have ever read. It follows the trajectories of three very different voices tell their stories through the eyes of innocence. All of the character's rattle around my mind like ghost's clawing their grip on my memory not allowing me to ever forget them. There is Wilhelm Falk who is a deeply ashamed ex SS Major who fakes his own death to intentionally get captured by the Allied forces, become a POW and be sent to America, so he can get his written notes and photographs of Hitler's death camps into the hands of somebody powerful enough to locate these death camps and stop them.

In the Netherlands through the eyes of an eight year old child named Izaak Tauber I was able to view the naivety of only someone his age. The belief when his father is dragged away the same way his best friend's family is that it is only temporary. He believes since his father is a talented engineer that he is needed to build something important. Izaak is a talented sketch artist whose drawings will keep him and his mother stay alive longer by being sent to Terezin. Terezin is a propaganda camp that was part of Hitler's schemes to fool the Red Cross who were visiting that the camp was beautified with stores with an abundance of food, where children went to school and whose inhabitants were fattened up so as to fool the world that these camps were a pleasant place to inhabit. Through Izaak's eyes the camp is putting on a play for the Red Cross to visit. After the Red Cross leaves Terezin goes back to being horrific.

Herbert Muller and his family live in Pennsylvania where his father emigrated from Germany after World War I and have settled down being patriotic German-American farmers. They begin getting threatened by thuggish teens and believe they are safe. In reality America had 12,000 German-American's arrested as enemy aliens and sent them to internment camps around the Country. Herbert Muller, his 70 year old father and his daughter, son and wife were sent to the Ellis Island one. After the rape of his thirteen year old daughter in the camp he decided to repatriate back to Germany. Herbert Muller's story is based on historical facts. An unknown number of the German-American's who were promised safe passage back to Germany died because they were not given the promised safe chaperoned returns. Once they entered a war torn Germany they lost all of their belongings and property in the United States which restitution was never received. Some chose never to come back to the United States to live.

The character of Wilhelm Falk is based on the real life of Kurt Gerstein who was a German SS officer who wrote letters with his gathered information of the horrors and mass extinctions to Pope Pius XII, and to both Swedish and Swiss diplomats trying to alert the international public about the atrocities he witnessed. He was both deeply ashamed and horrified what he had witnessed but nobody he wrote to thought there was anything they could do.

To say that the experience of reading this historical work of fiction was easy I would be lying if I said it was. It gutted me in its heartbreaking depiction of the evil and cruelties that happened knowing that much of it is based on historical fact. There is also a part of me that is grateful that I read it because I learned things that I haven't read about before about the Holocaust and World War II. New things that I learned that inspires me to further research like Friedl Dicker-Brandeis who was an Austrian artist who Izaak had for an art teacher at Terezin. She packed 5,000 pieces of the children's artwork into two suitcases and hid them away until in 1964 the publication of the book, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," incorporated the children's artwork and Poetry and got worldwide attention. I do highly recommend this book, "WHEN WE WERE BRAVE," by Karla M. Jay to readers of all genres but specifically to those who like history. I know that I will never forget it. If I could give this 100-plus stars I would.

Publication Date: April 10, 2019 (Year is correct)

Thank you to Net Galley, Karla M. Jay and Book Circle Press Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.


#WhenWeWereBrave #KarlaMJay #BookCirclePressPublishing #NetGalley

When we were brave by Karla M Jay

A world war 2, story told by three different people. Herbert Muller, a US citizen from Germany was accused of helping Germany and was send back to that country with all his possessions being taken from him. Izaak, a young Jewish boy sent to prison camps, separated from his mother and father, was chosen by Josef Mengele to be one of his experiments. Wilhelm Falk, an SS officer was sympathetic to the Jewish people. He took notes and wanted to destroy all of Hitler’s men. There were a lot of true fact in the novel. German and Italians were shipped to the United States and detained in camps. Many characters were real people. There were homes for displaced people.
The author wrote the novel in a way that causes the reader to get emotionally involved with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Book Circle Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased opinion.

Heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. Makes you really think about people and how they behaved during that time in History. The characters and plot were perfect.

This book is told from 3 different story lines...an SS officer horrified by what he sees in the work camps; an 8 year old boy who is half Jewish going from one concentration camp after another; a German American who is sent back to Germany as many German-Americans met the same repatriation. There was much to learn from this book, as the research done by this author was on-point and much more thorough than what I learned in school. This being said, the book was excellent and highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

History has a way of reminding us that humans can very heartless. Think about slavery, colonization, and the holocaust. This book took me back to a time when men were truly monsters.

In this story, Wilhem Falk is a former SS Officer who is trying to get the word out about the death camps. He has witnessed the despicable inhumanity of the German soldiers and wants the world to know. He hopes that creating awareness will put a stop to the madness. However, being an SS ‘traitor’ is a death sentence. In addition, nobody trusts him. Izaak is only 8 years old. He is Jewish. OMG his innocence was heartbreaking. Herbert’s story is new to me. He is an American with German Origin. His family is all settled in America, they are hardworking citizens with no links to Germany but that still doesn’t spare him from being profiled by FBI. In the process, he is deported to Germany. He doesn’t even know people there. Crazy!

This was a heartbreaking read. It is also the kind of read that makes you angry. I am so mad at Hitler and all his cronies with their dumb ‘Aryan Nation’. It breaks my heart that so many people had to suffer and lose their lives because of a lunatic. The story was intense as I kept wondering if the characters would survive. I wanted the war to end so badly. Little Izaak had my heart in my mouth a couple of times. He was just a young boy, so innocent even in the face of cruelty. He didn’t fully grasp what was going on and managed to get his family in trouble a couple of times.

This story was quite well written. Most of the characters were based on real people and this made the story even more heart-wrenching. I also thought the story was quite informative. I learned so many new things like the story of German immigrants living in other countries. I also learned the bizarre story of German women who were considered as being ‘racially pure’ and their contribution to the war was to have sex with SS Officers in an effort to procreate Aryan Children. This was the Lebensborn programme. I was surprised by this but a little research on Google brought me stories of these women. They volunteered and were honored to play this part for the Fuhrer.

When We Were Brave by Karla M. Jay is a well-written, captivating, informative story about love, loss, courage and pain. It is also a story about the best and worst of humanity. The research that went into the story made it more than just a great read. It ended up being the kind of story that offered me a lot of lessons. Definitely recommended.

I have not read a book that has left me so broken in a long time. I do this to myself because WW2 stories and the evil that men and women did to others (and continue to do) is so hard to fathom, but yet I gravitate to these books all the time. I honestly can't put into words what a remarkable book this is. Told from 3 perspectives and as difficult as it is to read, especially the sections told by innocent 8 year old Izaak it is a book that needs to be read. I had to put the book down several times, I just couldn't read it for too long at a time, it was heartbreaking.
Ms. Jay makes you FEEL the hurt, the love, the terror of war. I have so much to say but nothing I say could do this book justice...just read it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to provide my unbiased opinion.

#WhenWeWereBrave
#NetGalley

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is probably one of the best WWII books I have read. The 3 stories are so well written and could've each been a separate novel. Well researched and different than other books of this period I have read.

“When We Were Brave” by Karla M. Jay is a novel that portrays all the horror, grief, inhumanity, and bravery found in a young Jewish boy, a disenchanted SS officer, and a German-American family.

Wilhelm Falk fakes his death in order to be able to surrender to the Allies. He has been surreptitiously gathering incriminating evidence of Nazi horrors at the death camps during “visits” to each camp. He has posted photographs and other evidence to a pastor, a dear friend of his, in hopes that he can reclaim this information and turn it over to the Americans so that they can stop the killing of over 10,000 “undesirables” each day. His arduous journey is fraught with danger to him and to his family if his actions become known by the SS.

Izaak Tauber is a young half-Jewish boy, a Mischling, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands, whose father has been taken away to a “work” camp. His father asked him to take care of his mother until he could return to them. The two of them tried to leave via the resistance, but they were found out. Each day becomes another mountain of horror that they must endure. Izaak keeps on hoping that the situation will ease and that he and his family will be together again.

The third part of this story is about Herbert Müller and his family who farm in a small community in Pennsylvania. They are of German descent, Herbert’s father, Otto and his wife emigrated to American after the Great War. Herbert and his brother, who is serving in the Navy in the Pacific theater, were born on American soil. However, his father never became a citizen and the anti-German hysteria that believed that the family are spies changes their lives as no one in this day and age can imagine. I found this to be the most heart-breaking of all as an American, also of German-Irish descent. Although this happened long before my time, I feel responsible.

I found that this novel touched me as no other has. I felt the dismay, the helplessness, the absolute inability to make someone, anyone, listen to the truth. What an excellent book!