Winner of the 2016 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nancy Pearl Award for Best Book, this is the engaging story of the role the author’s maternal grandparents played in providing refuge to Jews escaping the German roundups in Holland. Dr. Pieter Schoorl and Anne Schoorl lived two hours from Amsterdam with their four young children on the family’s isolated farm in Bennekom. Dr. Schoorl maintained a laboratory in Amsterdam and another lab in a village house close to the farm. These facilities were critical to the success of their rescue work as eventually all three locations were used as safe houses for transporting and hiding escaping Jews.
The story of Briejer’s family provides insight to the wartime logistics of resistance and rescue operations, but also provides a view not often presented of the effects of that involvement on the personal relationships of the rescuers and, in this case, their young children who were active in their parents’ work. Pieter and Anne Schoorl are Honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
Briejer, who teaches at Pierce College, is a local author. His book is compelling, well-written, and a good addition to the topic of the resistance and rescue in the Netherlands. More info.
Reviewed by Kate Boris-Brown
This book is available to borrow from the Holocaust Center's library - email Rosa@HolocaustCenterSeattle.org. Books are mailed for free to members.
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