Extraordinarily Brave
My Brother’s Keeper by Rod Gragg is a powerful, moving book about ordinary people who did extraordinary acts of bravery to help the Jewish nation caught up in Europe as the Nazi’s marched and implemented the Final Solution. My Brother’s Keeper is thirty stories of people honoured by the State Of Israel as the Righteous Among The Nations. These people shone as lights in a darkened Europe as they helped God’s children.
The people came from all walks of life – the old and the young, the rich and the poor – united by their compassion for a persecuted people. Dr Feng Shan Ho said “I thought it was only natural to feel compassion.” He personally saved the lives of over twelve thousand.
I had heard of some of the people – Frank Foley, the ten Booms, Princess Alice and Nicholas Winton with his kindertransport. Nicholas Winton believed “there is a difference between passive goodness and active goodness.” In just a few months he saved six hundred and sixty eight children before the war began.
The other stories were all unknown to me but were all amazingly brave Christians. Their faith propelled them to action with no thought for their own safety. Otto and Gertrud Morike “believed their faith in Jesus… compelled them to resist Nazi tyranny and its persecution of the Jews.”
The Danes as a nation were incredible. They stood together to resist the Nazis and as a result ninety five per cent of Denmark’s Jews survived the Holocaust.
Some of the brave men and women paid with their lives – imprisoned, executed, inmates of the concentration camps. They believed in obeying God in the face of extreme evil. They saw no distinction between people. They are all God’s children.
Within each chapter there is much detail about the war as well as the individual stories. My Brother’s Keeper is not an easy book to read. Hitler and his evil regime beggars belief but the extraordinary acts of bravery will take your breath away.
We owe it to the six million who perished to continue to tell their stories. We need to keep their memory alive. We need to tell the subsequent generations so they did not perish only to be forgotten and consigned to history.
“Whoever saves a life, it is as if he saved an entire world.”
May we never forget.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.
JULIA WILSON