DeJong: The House of Sixty Fathers

 

The House of Sixty Fathers

Meindert DeJong

Published 1956

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Based on true events during the Sino-Japanese War, a young Chinese boy, Tien Pao, and his piglet were separated from his parents and baby sister. The Japanese had burned and occupied their village, and they were forced to flee. One day the family sampan -- carrying Tien Pao and his pig --  accidentally floated back into enemy territory. After making his way to shore, he sought to find his way back to his family through treacherous mountainous trails. Starving and exhausted, he and his pig slept in caves by day, and travelled by night. 

One of those days he witnessed the Japanese shoot down an American military plane. Tien Pao rescued the injured pilot, and with the aid of a group of Chinese guerrillas, they carried him back to his unit. And when Tien Pao arrived at the village where his parents had last been seen, the people were already fleeing because of the Japanese invasion. Tien Pao searched relentlessly until he was found by a couple of American pilots and taken to the barracks where they looked after and cared for him. All sixty pilots did. Hence the name House of Sixty Fathers. 

Meanwhile, the injured pilot whom he had met in the mountains was part of this unit, and he took Tien Pao to search for his parents. Of course, the young boy recognized his mother while she was working at a nearby airfield, and finally the family was reunited. 

This juvenile story has won many awards: Newberry Honor, Han Christian Andersen, and ALA Notable Children's Book. The author wrote this story based on his experiences as a pilot in China during WWII. 

I read this to my kids for school because we are studying China during the 1900s to current times. It was somewhat juvenile for them, but it gave them a sense of China during WWII, and when the U.S. and China were allies. Now not so much.  I also gave the book two stars because it was "agreeable" and we liked it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer and Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer / Annie Barrows

Published 2008

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THE PLOT

After the end of WWII, Juliet, an aspiring British writer in a slump, was struggling to find new inspiration. Then a man named Dawsey contacted her for a book recommendation. He had read a book by Charles Lamb, and her name was on the inside cover.

They began to correspond, and Juliet learned that Dawsey was part of an intimate literary society that organized during the German Occupation of Guernsey, the mainland of the Channel Islands. The Society still met together to discuss books. Dawsey encouraged its current members to write to Juliet and talk about themselves, what they read, and what life was like during the Occupation.

Juliet

At the same time, Juliet was being pursued by a wealthy American journalist -- a relationship that developed very quickly. However, Juliet's interests were aching to know and understand more about the people of the Guernsey Lit Society, and she decided to spend some time in Guernsey and interview the members in person.

Because this novel is epistolary, Juliet kept in touch with her publisher, her publisher's sister, and a few others, and readers were able to continue to learn about the developments between Juliet and the literary members. For example, the founder of the Society, Elizabeth, had been missing since the Occupation. She had developed an intimate relationship with a kind German soldier and they had a child together. The little girl's name was Kit, and the members of the Society took turns caring for her since Elizabeth had been arrested and taken away. No one at the time knew Elizabeth's fate, and they hoped she would return home since the War had ended. 

Obviously, the relationship between Juliet and Dawsey was warming up, while Juliet's other love interest, the rich American, had shown himself to be controlling and suffocating; he surprised Juliet and Dawsey by arriving on Guernsey, and that was the end of that relationship. Juliet told him it was over, but not before it was apparent to Dawsey that Juliet had someone else in her life. So now he backed off.

Then one miscommunication led to another, and Juliet grew to believe that Dawsey had affections for a woman named Remy who had contacted Dawsey with news about Elizabeth. Because of Remy, the Society members now learned the sad truth about their dear friend Elizabeth. And now began the perplexing question of what to do about Kit.

The interesting character of Juliet, the kind of person she was, and how she cared about others mirrored the missing character, Elizabeth. Furthermore, Juliet's publisher suggested that instead of writing broadly about the Society and the history of the Occupation, Juliet should focus on Elizabeth and write the story through the narration of her life. Soon the history became a biography. Or was it really an autobiography?

THE THEME

One of the main themes of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is that you may never really know someone as well as you think you do. People will surprise you. There are always exceptions, and this seems to be a big message.

The Guernsey Literary Society

THE OPINION

My only complaint about this story is that the ending was too abrupt and I wanted to know more about the biography of Elizabeth. Gosh, I wanted to READ an actual biography about the fictional character! I wonder if it seemed abrupt because Mary Ann Shaffer started the story and her niece Annie Barrows finished it for her while Shaffer battled with illness. I did not look into it. 

But the good news is: everyone I talked to about this book told me it was her "favorite." Some had read it over and over again. Seems like everyone who read it wanted to rave about it. It definitely appealed to me in many ways. While it was heart breaking at times, it remained historically enlightening, entertaining, sweet, and engaging. Overall, it was a great idea for a story. Very agreeable. 

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place

Corrie Ten Boom 

Published 1971

Dutch Biography

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The Hiding Place is about the ten Boom family, of Holland, who, with the aid of an underground organization, smuggled nearly 800 Dutch Jewish men, women, and children to safety, preserving their lives during WWII. They - the ten Boom family - paid the ultimate price with their own lives.

Corrie ten Boom was in her 40s when Hitler invaded Holland, and life changed drastically for her family and their watch repair business. Food and supplies became scarce and were rationed, curfews were set, young Dutch men were kidnapped and forced into the German army, and all forms of communication were confiscated. 

The ten Booms witnessed Jewish businesses close, Jews forced to wear the yellow Star of David, and finally, the disappearance of people. It was then that Corrie and her family wanted to do something to help God's people, as they referred to them. 

The ten Booms worked with the Dutch underground resistance smuggling Jews to the country, to homes where people willingly hid them. She managed to receive stolen ration cards, though she hated lying and stealing; nonetheless, it helped feed the extra people passing through her home. 

Eventually, the ten Booms had a secret space built inside Corrie's bedroom wall so they could hide the Jews staying with them. It was to be the hiding place. 

They knew it was only time before a raid, and they were prepared. In February, 1944, Corrie and her family, as well as 30 members of the underground, were arrested, but not before the six Jews in the ten Boom home fled into the hiding space. There they safely remained for three days until someone from the underground was able to rescue and secure them in another location. 

As for Corrie and her sister, Betsie, it was a different ending, an ordeal I struggle to put it into words. The specifics are horrifying, but I do suggest you read this for yourself.

What I rather write about is Corrie's character, and Betsie's, too. The ten Booms were a Christian family...the kind that followed Christ's example. Lying and stealing were frowned upon, but when  [man's government]* violated God's law, it was right to disobey government. And they did everything they needed to do to save the Jewish people who were targeted by the German occupation. 

*Sidebar: This was not a legitimate government because Holland was invaded, and a usurper was making his own perverse law the law of the land.

When I first read The Hiding Place several years ago, it made sense that the book was named after the hiding place in Corrie's bedroom; however, after this second read, I realize there is a second meaning. Corrie noted Scripture her father quoted: 

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word . . . Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe . . . 

 For I too had a hiding place when things were bad. Jesus was this place, the Rock cleft for me. 

Jesus was their hiding place; He is our hiding place. 

Corrie and Betsie remembered this throughout the year they were in prison, and it sustained them in the most amazing ways. Considering her situation, she reflected how the Gospels were a "pattern of God's activity," and, she wondered, "if defeat was only the beginning..."

     . . . what conceivable victory could come from a place like this."

Soon, Corrie learned that Betsie was safe in a separate cell, and that all of their other family members and friends had been released. Through a letter, she read that "all the watches in the closet [were] safe," which was code for "All six Jews left hiding in the closet were safe and placed in other locations. They escaped and were free!" She also found out that her father had died ten days after his arrest; though difficult to absorb, she found it a comfort to know he was now seeing Jesus face to face.

After four months at the Dutch holding prison, Corrie and Betsie were reunited and sent to Scheveningen prison, in Holland, for political dissidents. For the first time, Corrie marveled what kind of person her sister was because she prayed for the prison guards. "Betsie saw a wounded human being."

Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes...

Some how the sisters found out who had exposed their underground operations to the Gestapo.  Corrie said she could kill him, but Betsie had been praying for him. When Corrie was alone with her thoughts, she felt convicted that she had been guilty of the same sin, murder, because she murdered him with her heart and mouth. That night she forgave him.

When the world was closing in on Germany, in 1944, the prisoners were moved again, into Germany. Ravensbruck was the notorious women's extermination camp. It was here that one thing became evident to Corrie and Betsie "...from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope."

The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loves us."

The bunks in their barrack were infested with fleas, something Betsie said they should be thankful for..."Give thanks in all circumstances." Corrie was sure that there was no way she could be thankful for fleas, but Betsie clarified that it did not say to be thankful only in pleasant circumstances. Fleas were part of the world God had placed the sisters.

Since Corrie and Betsie had smuggled a Bible into Ravensbruck, they held nightly Bible meetings in their barrack with the other women. Initially, they were extremely careful not to alert the guards; but soon after, it was apparent that no guard would ever enter their barracks. Why? Fleas! (Be thankful in all things.)

Meanwhile, Betsie was physically perishing. Her health had been weak since they were arrested. Corrie did all she could to care for her sister's health, while her sister was always more concerned with the health and well being of others. It also seemed, the weaker she became, the bolder her witness.

When Corrie was thinking about how to help the prisoners after their release, providing a place for people to go, to care for and love them...Betsie was thinking about a place to help the German guards, "to show them that love is greater." Betsie loved their enemies and prayed for those who persecuted them.

Corrie wrote about how she struggled with the sin of selfishness and self-centeredness. She called it "the ploy of Satan." During a brief time when Betsie was in the "hospital" - which was not really a hospital, and I doubt there was actual medical help anywhere on the grounds - Corrie had to lead Bible meetings without her sister. She came to the story of Paul and his affliction. Three times he requested God to remove it from him, and three times God told Paul to rely on Him. It was then that Corrie understood that her sin had been a false belief in her own strength and power to transform, when it was all Christ.

I am sad to say that Betsie died shortly after this, and only twelve days before Corrie was released. Later it was learned that her release was probably a mistake, and furthermore, two weeks later, the women in her age group from her barracks were sent to the gas chamber.

Getting home was not easy. It seemed the whole world was void of love and care; but Corrie did make it back to her family home, to learn the fate of loved ones and more sad news.

In 1945, she opened a rehabilitation home in Holland for hurting people. Some had spent time in concentration camps and others spent years in hiding. Some were prisoners of the Japanese in Indonesia. Everyone had to learn forgiveness and to work out the sorrow within him.

One day, after a speaking engagement, a former S. S. guard of Ravensbruck came up to shake Corrie's hand, and Corrie froze.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man: was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. 

Suddenly, when she raised her hand out to meet his, she felt "a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed [her]." Corrie learned that it is not our forgiveness or goodness that "the world's healing hinges, but on His."

When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Isn't that beautiful? And it is true, too.

There are no 'ifs' in God's kingdom. I could hear [Betsie's] soft voice saying it. His timing is perfect. His will is our hiding place. Lord Jesus, keep me in Your will! Don't let me go mad by poking about outside it.

Is this book for you?

I am very tempted to say that everyone should read this book. It is written in a way that anyone who reads it, junior high age and up, can understand it. It speaks to the heart. It is about hatred and forgiveness, suffering and caring and true love. It is about the human condition. It is about changing hearts. It is about perseverance and doing hard things. It is a testament of God using others to do His work in this sin-filled world, so that it is not so ugly. And it is historical -- one gets a first hand account of the results of Nazi-Germany's evil and destruction beyond the Jewish people. It affected everyone. Yes, actually, everyone needs to read this book. 

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank  

Published 1947

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I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.

This was my third read of The Diary of a Young Girl. My first time was in high school, and instantly Anne Frank became my heroine because of her courage. I read it a second time as an adult to remind myself of specifics before I had one of my teenagers read it. But this third time was because I was eagerly craving to read it. Today it remains one of the most essential books I have ever read. I love this story, which is why it is part of my Personal Canon. 

Imagine how it came to be: Anne received a writing journal on her 13th birthday; but a few months later, she and her family were forced into hiding where Anne recorded life in the Secret Annex for the next two years, until discovery. Her diary was preserved and returned to her father, Otto Frank, who was the only surviving member of her family and the four other Jews living in the annex. Later Otto made the decision to share her writings, first privately, and later publicly with the world. 

Anne Frank was a spirited young girl, a German Jew living in Nazi-occupied Holland, during WWII. Her family was forced into hiding when it was apparent that time had run out and they had no other escape. They secretly moved into a hidden area of Otto's business, with the help of several Christian employees who worked there. Another couple, the Van Daans, their teenage son, Peter, and an elderly dentist, all shared the hiding place, which Anne called, "The Secret Annex." 

For two years, Anne wrote honestly of her life in hiding. She shared her hopes and joys, conflicts and burdens, fears and disappointments. It was, for Anne, an accelerated journey to maturity, as she wrote about her anticipated changes as a young woman and exposed her heart's desire for affection, love, justice, and truth. 

She was a young woman before her time, and dreamed of doing so much more with her life than to just follow in the footsteps of her mother and other women. She considered becoming a writer -- maybe a journalist or an author -- and said,

I want to get on; I can't imagine that I would have to lead the same sort of life as Mummy and Mrs. Van Daan and all the women who do their work and are then forgotten. I must have something besides a husband and children, something that I can devote myself to! 

She was extremely intelligent and thirsty for knowledge. Her favorite hobbies were writing and reading, collecting information to construct family trees of royal families (which is not an easy task), all kinds of history, Greek and Roman mythology, and film stars, art, poetry, and later, a deep appreciation for nature. Considering the situation the members of the Annex lived, there was never a shortage of books to read, while Otto regularly worked with Anne, her sister, Margot, and Peter, on their studies. 

She would have made a great teacher.

Anne was quick-witted and maybe a little too liberated, though extremely courageous, to take up a logical contest with the stubborn elder of the group, over sharing his writing desk. She knew her argument was fair and good, and she persisted for the right outcome, knowing she was up against his elder status. She appealed to him numerous times, and to her parents, until justice prevailed. 

She would have made a great lawyer or judge.

Sadly, Anne struggled in a strained relationship with her distant and critical mother. During their time in the hiding place, she openly wrote about their separation, declaring:

I am becoming still more independent of my parents, young as I am. I face life with more courage than Mummy, my feeling for justice is immovable, and truer than hers. I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know I'm a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage. 

  With all the burdens of hiding in a compromised small space, in silence, with little clothing, medicine, exercise, or healthy food, Anne asked which would be better: "...to be dead now and not going through all this misery, especially as we shouldn't be running our protectors into danger anymore"[?]

But we all recoil from these thoughts too, for we still love life; we haven't yet forgotten the voice of nature, we still hope, hope about everything. 

Later, Anne and Peter became emotionally dependent upon each other, and in many ways, Anne wanted to desperately "help" improve Peter, who suffered from the ineptitude of his own parents. She knew Peter was of weak character, and due to his admission, she said:

Quite honestly, I can't imagine how anyone can say: "I'm weak," and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character?

She was full of compassionate and empathy; the kind of person who wanted to fix people. 

She would have made a great counselor or advocate or mediator.

This is also a record of World War II, as told through the silenced victims of that war, and of course, Anne had an opinion about it, too. Naturally, she desired peace; but it was also war that brought hope because there was a promised victory, a finality to the war, and thus liberty of the people. 

In May, 1944, Anne defended the English for helping the Dutch by asking why Holland deserved England's help in the first place; after all, the English could just as quickly point fingers at other surrounding and unoccupied nations for "being asleep during the years when Germany was rearming."

We shan't get anywhere by following an ostrich policy. England and the whole world have seen that only too well now...

She would have made a great diplomat. 

Finally, Anne said of the Jews:

Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. 

Be brave! Let us remain aware of our task and not grumble. A solution will come, God has never deserted our people.  Right through the ages there have been Jews, through all the ages they have had to suffer, but it has made them strong too; the weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!

 And whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery! ~ Anne Frank

OF A PERSONAL NOTE

Because I know that Anne was captured and died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp only a few months before liberation, I found myself unable to get the horror out of my mind. I could not sleep some nights. Her hopefulness for life and liberty was heavy in my heart all the time.

And also, I wanted to add that I agree with Vera Britton (author of Testament of Youth) who argued against the decision to place blame and responsibility solely on Germany, for WWI, which was explained in the afterward of my copy of Anne Frank's Diary; and I say this because history shows us that the German people were hardest hit, not the disheveled government. This gave rise to the vile creature of Hitler, who convinced the German people, and later the rest of Europe, that their troubles were really the fault of the Jews. 

IS THIS BOOK FOR YOU?

This is a book for everyone because it is universal in scope, theme, ideas, history, and nature. For some it could be overwhelmingly memorable and personal, and for others it may only be acceptably good; but whichever, it is for everyone. 

If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world and for mankind!

I think Anne became greater than she even dreamed.