Naomi Weisman is a Canadian, Australian and mother of three, who loves to ramble with her dog, cook for family and friends, and laugh whenever possible.
I had a few friends over for dinner at the cottage a couple of weeks ago. One of them had just come back from a trip to Germany with her two eldest children, her mother-in-law, and her ex-husband. The reason they were in Germany was to acknowledge her father-in-law who had recently passed.
He was one of the lucky few children who had been evacuated from the Reich (Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland) just before World War II began, on the Kindertransport. Plaques were being put up on houses that would have belonged to these people had they not been forced to flee, in order to commemorate their lives, their losses, and what was stolen from them and their families.
Many of the transports of these children were orchestrated, in large part, by a woman named Truus Weijsmuller (Tante Truus), from the Netherlands. As we were sitting having drinks before dinner and listening to my friend tell us the details of her trip, my other friend pipes up that she is currently reading a book all about Tante Truus and her heroism called The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton.
Such a strange coincidence because these two friends had never met before that evening, and do not share this kind of history in common.
As many of you might have figured out by now, I love to read historical fiction. Especially about the two world wars. My bookshelves are filled with books about the Holocaust and the bravery of those who worked tirelessly to save as many as they could from a terrible fate. So, of course, I had to read this book! I needed to know more about this incredible woman and her network of partisans working in the shadows to save so many.
Set in 1937-1939, this novel follows the lives of two young teenage kids, Stephan Neuman and Zofie-Helene Perger. Stephan is the son of a very wealthy, Jewish chocolatier in Vienna, Austria; Zofie-Helene is a non-Jewish daughter of an anti-fascist journalist and granddaughter of the local barber.
They became dear friends and confidantes in 1937, before Germany invaded Austria and dissolved its government, making it a part of the Reich (March,1938). As time wears on, both children and their families are in danger, fighting for their survival.
Meanwhile, Truus Weijsmuller, a middle aged social worker, is married but without children of her own. She and her husband Joop have been working behind the scenes to help persecuted families secretly get their children over the border from Germany into Holland, usually one or two at a time. As the persecution laws in the Reich intensify, and the situation for those they are imposed upon become more dire, Weijsmuller’s missions escalate to the point where she is smuggling several children out at a time.
One of the things I love about this book is the time period. Most of the novels I read that are set during WWII are centred around the war years (1939-1945), not before it. Knowing about the incremental laws against persecuted people, along with the arrests of the men in the families that left the women desperate to help their children survive, gives the reader a deeper understanding of the desperation that lead to the Kindertransport and the heroism of people like Tante Truus and her network. This kind of knowledge helps to give context to the stories like my friend’s father-in-law's.
The last Train to London represents real events, the imagined lives of real people, thoughtful themes, well-written characters, and the compelling story of people who make a difference in the world. If you love historical fiction, you will love this book.
Have you read it, or anything like it? Let me know in the comments.
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