This book is based on the true story of a young woman in Amsterdam in 1941, who risked everything to save countless children from the Nazis. I hadn't read anything about WWII from the perspective of those in Amsterdam, so this was interesting, and I had no idea of the level of duplicity those nursery workers were able to pull off in order to save all of those children was amazing. If you are a fan of historical fiction, then you will definitely want to check this one out.

We Had to Save Them is a heartbreaking historical fiction novel focused around the Jewish community in Amsterdam, specifically the Jewish nursery teachers and children. The story is based on real events and real people during WWII and the Holocaust.

I am a big fan of historical fiction novels and this one hit the mark beautifully. While most books based during this time period are focused on the Holocaust and atrocities that were the concentration camps, this novel focused on the brave women who worked in the Jewish nursery in Amsterdam from 1942-1943. These brave women took care of thousands of children and worked to create a system that helped save over 600 children from being deported to Germany and the camps. While under the watchful eyes of the SS, Betty and her coworkers would convince parents to let them find safe havens for their children to hide in order to keep the children safe from the war. Child counts were fudged, fake babies handed back to families for transport, and children hidden in all manners in order for the system to work. You felt the heartbreaking decisions of these families and the pain of the nursery workers when they had to choose which of the children they would save.

The main character, Betty, was brave and sassy and everything you would want a woman of resistance to be. Faced with grievous realizations of her own family’s fate, Betty stays strong and determined to do what she can to subvert the efforts of the Germans. Betty’s story is heartbreaking but also full of hope and triumph. Betty brings a sense of light and innocence to a dark and dismal moment of history.

Thank you to @netgalley and @bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this novel. If you are a fan of historical fiction and WWII era storylines, I highly suggest you pick this one up.

OH MY GOSH this book. It was completely heart-wrenching. It was well written and I felt like I was in the pages with the characters. It was full or heartbreak, bravery, compassion and brutality and made me cry on almost every chapter.

I just reviewed we had to save them by Elle van Rijn and here is my review.
It’s 1941 in Amsterdam. Betty, a young nursery teacher, works in a nursery helping Jewish parents with childcare so they can go to work. Being able to bring some joy to these little children's lives during a devastating time, is what keeps Betty going every day.
Then the Nazis start taking the kids away.
Now Betty’s little nursery is part of a deportation center for little children and their families. Soon enough they get wind of what is happening to these children as they are taken away on those trains.
The Germans do not care about these kids and will shoot to kill anyone who stands in their way. That doesn’t stop Betty and the ladies she works with setting up a network to smuggle as many kids out right under the Nazis noses. What they are doing is dangerous and if they are caught, it will earn them a one way ticket to Auschwitz but for Betty, the risk is worth her life.
This book was so gut wrenching I had to put it down a few times just to settle the tears down. I love that the book was based on real people and the things they did, at the risk of their own lives, to save kids, truly inspiring. Betty was just a teen when she went to work for the nursery and she never backed down from the atrocities of what was going on around her.
I loved that this book wasn’t set in Germany as a WW2 novel but Amsterdam and the fact it was set in a nursery was really refreshing. This novel checked every single box for me and I loved watching Betty grapple with the realities of her life and knowing her family was ripped apart all because of their religion must have been devastating.
If you love the kind of book with bravery, selflessness and will make you blubber like a baby, this is the book for you. Be prepared that it is a really heavy topic dealing with the kids, but it really is worth the read. Well paced and a solid 5 stars! The book taught me something about the war that I didn’t know and I am reminded that there were so many unsung heroes in that dark time in our history and they never gave up on what was right.
Thank you netgalley and bookouture for bringing this beautiful masterpiece to me in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story of a courageous woman named Betty who managed to save babies from the Nazis and is based on the true story.

Anything that is based on Holocaust is appealing to me. So when I heard that this is based on the true story of an actual woman who saved babies from deportation. We all know that Nazis deported the children and the Jewish people to the concentration camps. I was mesmerized this character and it was actually emotional and heartbreaking as some parts of the story. The author must have done tremendous research about the Holocaust and about the woman in general that it actually felt realistic while reading the story and did a good job of making the reader feel like they are part of the story. Reading about how Jewish people suffered under the Nazi rule was too heartbreaking and emotional to read.

If you like a historical fiction based on the true story, then this book is one for you--worth five stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

It doesn't happen all that often, a Dutch author being translated into English. So you could say I was quite surprised when publisher Bookouture asked me to read and review We Had to Save Them by our very own Elle van Rijn. Of course I said yes. A great opportunity even, because I was planning to read it in Dutch, but couldn't simply fit it into my schedule. Now I could even compare the two languages! (Which is a great opportunity for me, as I am currently studying to become a translator of literary fiction.) Did I read the book twice, once in Dutch and once in English? No, unfortunately that would be a little too much at this moment, but while reading the English translation I did read certain sentences in Dutch as well. Simply to see what choices the translator made.

Enough about that, let's talk about this book! What is it about?

We Had to Save Them is set in the Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam, during World War II. It describes everything that happens to its main character, Betty Oudkerk, between September 1941 and September 1943. Betty is a Jewish girl who works as a nursery teacher in the nursery across the street from the Hollandsche Schouwburg theatre. At first it's a nursery where Jewish children are taken care of during the day, when their parents are at work. But as the war progresses, the nursery changes. The theatre across the street is annexed by the Germans. Jews are summoned there before their deportation to Westerbork, Vught or one of the other camps. Because the theatre soon is way too small to fit in all those families, the nursery takes in all of the children. They take care of them, day and night, until it's time for their deportation together with their families.
There are a couple of incredible nursery teachers working at the nursery and they try everything within their power to make these children disappear. Children are being smuggled out of the nursery to Dutch families who put everything at risk to hide these infants. To keep them safe. To save them.

Let me tell you first how amazed, dumbfounded and blown away I was by the fact that this operation has actually taken place in Amsterdam. How is it possible I missed this piece of the history of my own country? It's also quite frightening to think this happened not all that long ago and not even 25 kilometres from my home! While reading the book I kept thinking, Is this real? Are these characters real? It must be real. Luckily all of my questions were answered at the back of the book, which provides the reader with some historical information in which to place this story. It is real, every bitter part of it.

It was an incredible strange experience for me to read all these typically Dutch names in an English book. I am also incredibly happy that none of the names had been changed at translation. I have to admit that before reading I was kind of scared such a thing would have happened. But I can only say this translation is a very good one. The reader gets the original story, with the original names. The reader is with Betty, Sieny and Mirjam in Amsterdam, even though that reader probably hasn't got a clue how to pronounce most of those names!

I feel like I'm rambling, but that is what this story does to you. Its monstrosoties and its heroics throw you around like a ball, from intense grief to elation and back again. That's also what makes this an incredibly powerful novel. A well written powerful novel that also teaches us something. We are all human, whatever our religion or origin might be, and we should therefore all be treated as such. Let's hope that something like this will never happen again!

This book has everything; bravery, fighting occupation and brutality, compassion, and sadness. Betty’s story is nothing sort of remarkable as a young Jewess in occupied Amsterdam in 1941 she was determined to do whatever she could to help her community survive under the Germans and those of her countrymen who decided to work with them. As a trainee Nursery Nurse, she demonstrates how she learns very quickly how to circumvent the rules, help her colleagues, and ultimately uses her quick wits to become heavily involved in saving babies from deportation and certain death. When she is discovered, she manages to evade capture and lived to an old age.
The book also reveals the plight of both Dutch Jews and the rest of the population who united to disrupt the occupation but make their own lives a bearable as possible.

WWII was over 70 years ago but stories are still untapped about the many risks, chances, and heroics of ordinary people.
van Rijn, in We Had to Save Them writers about a group,of courageous people who worked tirelessly to save as many Jewish children as possible through the nursery.
I Had never heard of this angle before and read this historical novel, Learning a lot. I learned what bravery Looks like, how much impact a 17 year old can have, and all the untold stories of WWII that have yet to be unearthed.
It’s a heavy story and there’s isn’t really a happily ever after because many died. But many were also saved so it wasn’t for naught.
All of these stories and more need to be preserved and studied.

A really enjoyable book to read with emotion that has the tissues out I can highly recommend this book as readers will love it.5*

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this astounding book

based on true events and the people involved

this is an astounding story of bravery based during the second world war when the germans were trying to get rid of the jews, a nursery was being used as a way station where the children were held before they were put onto trains heading for the death camps

but some children were disappearing before they got onto those trains....

a small group were helping to make these children escape and this is the story of those brave people

the author has also included a brief chapter at the end explaining what happened to some of the children and helpers

its enough to make you cry what they all went through and knowing that its all based on fact

Betty Oudkerk does everything she possibly can to protect children from the Nazis during the dark days of World War II. This tragic read is set in the Netherlands. After a nursery has been taken over by the Nazis, the nursery has been turned into a deportation center. Not only does Betty begin hiding children, a network of sorts is formed as she and other nurses do all they can to save these young lives. This book is based on a true story, a story that illustrates the exceptional feat of bravery by the remarkable Betty.

Knowing that the nursery is only one stop along the way, with the final destination being Auschwitz, assuring certain destruction, Betty and others form an underground network to save as many young lives as possible. From nursery teacher to savior, Betty does all she can. With certain death a fair guarantee otherwise, Betty and the other nurses work feverishly hard in their endeavors.

Based on a true story, a vast plan is set in motion and Betty and the others relentlessly work together with a mix of ingenuity and strength, and facilitate rescue after rescue. Often heartbreaking, this is a story that needs to be told. Sadly, pivotal people in history are often forgotten and a book like this helps to bring them the attention they deserve.

This heartbreaking book illustrates the amazing talent that Elle van Rijn has when it comes to relating such an incredible story. This book proves what must’ve been an astonishing amount of research to make this such a readable account, one that will no doubt have you reaching for a box of tissues. In fact, in the letter at the end of the book not only there is something special to be found about what the author’s experiences were, she also states that “this story is about courage, about hatred and about exclusion”. We all can make a choice to do better like Betty did, and by writing this book, our fabulous author tells a story about decisions and choices that make us stronger and help us to protect our children.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Wow, I actually have a book hangover from reading this poignant, sometimes harrowing book, which is based on a true story.
This is truly an epic story of the bravest of people in World War 2 set in Amsterdam.
The characters are mostly real people, and how they managed a truly epic rescue, and I know this book will stay in my heart for many years to come.
This was obviously researched meticulously and I have to commend the author on the way she has put this together.
An absolute must read!!

This is a really hard-hitting but poignant book based on real people and real events during the Holocaust. The fact that people, mainly women, managed to save so many children from being transported to concentration camps is truly incredible and the juxtaposition of this bravery with the atrocities of the Holocaust is immensely powerful. I’d recommend this, is only because more people need to know the names of the people this book is based on.

WE HAD TO SAVE THEM by ELLE VAN RIJN is based on the true WW11 story of Betty Oudkerk who worked as a nursery teacher in Amsterdam.
The nursery is opposite a Jewish theatre which is taken over by the Nazis and turned into a deportation centre. It is not long before the nursery becomes involved in the Nazis’ wicked plans. The conditions in the deportation centre are horrific as is the manner in which the Jews are treated in occupied Holland.
Betty is an outgoing and sometimes outspoken young woman, who is willing to play the comic when necessary and who loves children and her family with a passion. She is very brave and we see how she and the other nursery teachers are willing to do anything to save as many children from certain death as possible. With their emotions being “kept in check as much as possible” and the understanding that “The main game here is to navigate between what’s expected of you and what you can arrange unnoticed,” many children are smuggled out in the most imaginative ways.
I found the book very real and most inspirational, and highly recomment it as a great read.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

A historical fiction basert on true events during ww2. In this book we follow corageous women , their attempt to.save jewish children. Omg my heart broke, and I still Wonder how can one little man get so much support from other People. They must have had no souls, looking into the.innocent childrens eyes, and still send them to concentration camp, and to death. You have to read this.book.
Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this e arc in exchange for an honest opinion

Based on the heart-wrenching true story of an ordinary young woman who risked everything to save countless children from the Nazis. A heartbreaking and gripping read that will have you reaching for the tissues. Beautifully written, engaging and heart-warming…..

A WWII true story that needed to be told! Though I know what the Holocaust was about and do not need to read what happened in the concentration camps, this novel focused on the people who gave their life (literally or not) in order to help hide and save an oppressed community (here children). I learned a lot about those times in the Netherlands! The author gives at the end of the book details of the main characters who survived (or not), and about their lives after the war ended. A great story!
I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily a review.