The Hidden Village: A Story of Survival in WW2 Holland by Imogen Matthews

 author Imogene Matthews
 published by Amsterdam Publishing
Reviewed from Kindle

This is a book that truly has a strong message
This is a book that truly has a strong message and imparts some very important safety measures, especially for the children. Depending on the reader's awareness of WWII, it is a difficult story and yet made me follow the people involved, really drew me. While I say it is a difficult story, it is even more a very well-written story that encompasses several years, several lives, and a Hidden Village. Now that is very interesting and I loved the story-line, the closeness of the village, the historic significance. I read this whole book without stopping, it grabbed me so much. Was there a real "Hidden Village"? I honestly don't know but I have suspicions of a sort. There have been signs of it. The people are the main focus, because this was the way a community came together and lived and watched out for each other, and protected the Jewish families and in many cases just the children.

Even today the world reverberates with loss and fear, lost dreams and lost family. Sometimes it seems that every generation has a war and it starts all over again. Generation after generation. But this is a story that is innovative, careful, frightened yes, but they are making plans, they are refusing to simply be victims and nor do they leave these people to what is absolute slaughter. I really found this not only an interesting read, but grew up feeling for many of the innocents and those who lost their lives. WWII is a history not forgotten.

The fascination comes mostly with how the Dutch were able to hide so many in some very small places. If indeed the Hidden Village is/was real, it operates in this book as a community living as normal as possible, while being very careful. The Village is not seen easily, thanks to the heavily wooded area surrounding it. But most people know if they go into the woods, they are not as quiet as one might think. Sometimes a twig snaps, sometimes a bird stops in mid-song. But back to the German searches through the community, did they ever find the Hidden part? When refugees are taken in to the village homes the transition is pretty smooth but the need for so many spaces increases constantly. Closets, attics, under floors, small spaces. This book is based on a village in Holland of which some signs have been found. I would say this historical fiction is closer to fact than originally thought. Those who have read Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank will remember they were hidden in this way.

There are several times that there are near misses of the villagers getting caught. Finding an English pilot once and an American pilot later, both in the woods, shows how chancy any outdoor activity is. How they managed to get the glaring white 'chutes out of the dark forest fast enough for them not to be found amazes me. But life goes on and on, and for probably years the Hidden Village was not found. My thanks to Imogene Matthews for the courage, insight, endurance, and the ability to see things that may or may not have been there and interpreted it all into a polished and fascinating piece of historic value. This is the best I have read in this genre.

Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather by Mike Smith

Reviewed for Review the Book
Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

When I first requested this book for review, little did I know I would be reading it and beginning my review amidst forest fires, smoky air, and strong wind gusts! My interest in requesting the book is twofold: I recall Hurricane Frieda ripping through Vancouver, B.C. in 1962, a very rare event for that area; my Dad's cousin was the weatherman who was first to recognize and forecast it, returning to work to do so on TV in Portland, Ore. Weather has always fascinated me, not only because "everybody talks about the weather"!

"Warnings" is very easy to read for the layman. I was shocked to learn how lacking some of the basic things we now take for granted were, such as no tornado warnings as recently as the 1950s, in some areas of the U.S. even more recently. Not a hint! How many lives must have been lost needlessly in past years? Mike Smith has done his research, has lived his research, and knows how to deliver it. The book is historical, accurate, and personal. I was hooked on the Introduction which primes the reader for the main event, or in this case events, to come in this book.

Smith gradually builds from its early beginnings the study and workings of tornadoes in terms anyone can understand. The subject is fascinating as he writes it. By two-thirds through his book I am amazed that the few trips I have taken by plane were successful strictly on the basis of weather! The growth of knowledge, and the way that growth comes about is exciting and tragic at the same time. When the investigations turn to storm-chasing, the reader learns just how important this scientific information-gathering becomes, not just another daredevil stunt among adventure seekers as we might see on TV.

I found the information on Dr. Fujita's methods and discoveries to be well explained and the ignorance of the official weather prognosticators in their cocooned refusal to accept his discoveries almost inevitable, yet unacceptable and disastrous. Even when changes were made, neither pilots nor airport control staff were made aware of impending tornadoes, or "microbursts" (explained in the book) until very recently, a ruling referred to by Mike Smith as "bureaucratic myopia". This is non-fiction, but gave me the shivers in the same way as a thriller fiction would, especially with a very close call that was averted not by a weather warning, but because of a power outage at the airport just prior to a landing, causing the pilot to abort the landing.

Did you ever wonder how the newspapers got their weathermaps so up-to-date? Did you ever wonder how Doppler Radar came into being and how it works? These are questions I'd asked myself through the years and they are covered in this impressive book. This is not a large book, nor do you have to be a meteorologist or savant to read it. Nor does it deal exclusively with tornadoes. It is all written in simple language. There are also a number of photos in the book. While this book deals mostly with the U.S., it is of global significance.

Not surprisingly, the most critical event in the book is Hurricane Katrina. Among other things we learn what could go wrong with the forecasts’ timely releases, what did go wrong and why, and how they tried to get the evacuation process going while there was still time. The survivors were literally 'hung out to dry' as buck-passing and meals in high end restaurants took precedent over people. How many more could have survived if it weren't for the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo and selfishness? The night of August 31, 2005 should be etched in their memories forever as deaths of survivors began to pile up. If bureaucracy hadn't fumbled the ball, the meteorological scientists would have netted it.

This is a fascinating book, full of suspense, telling it like it is, and a great learning experience without realizing just how much of what you read will stay with you. I highly recommend this book, it opened my eyes to the difficulties people 'in the know' deal with not just occasionally, but on-going in their efforts to keep us all as safe as possible. We know that paramedics, firemen, rescue teams all do this as part of the job, but we rarely think of the background to catastrophe. Winds, flash flooding, and the deadliest for a city below sea level: a storm surge. All closely watched. One last tornado is included: Greensburg, a town that disappeared, but has risen again. As an added bonus, this book is interactive. There are symbols scattered throughout which direct readers to a website where they can find videos, related information, and more.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Originally posted Wednesday, November 26, 2008

An amazing story of the ability of the mind to access the survival instincts we don't even know we possess. One woman's story of utilizing the Warsaw Zoo after semi-destruction and the loss of animals to German zoos or outright shooting, to rescue hundreds of Jews as a part of the Underground. Chapter 1 takes place in 1935 and gives a jump-off point of life at the zoo before the horrors to follow.

While Diane Ackerman has obviously done a great deal of research and interviewed many witnesses, her book occasionally appears to get sidetracked. In one section the war is going on and suddenly it is over as she discusses Hasidism and seems to switch into the time after the war (e.g. 1960s) and talks about the results of the war in the past tense although the chapter is actually in 1941. Over these few pages there is almost a calm, and then we are taken back into the war. I felt these instances could have possibly been brought out in notes rather than interrupting the flow. However, perhaps there was a feeling of necessity to the plot that I didn't see at the time. It may simply have been a quieter time in the course of what was going on in Warsaw before another heavy bombardment of war, dehumanization, the beginning of the "liquidation" of the Ghetto and the nearing of the Allies (some of whom apparently were not allies to Poland).

I love the way the author portrays the life at the villa, going along its own unique way. A new kind of normal to most inhabitants, permanent or traveling through. The most amazing mixture of people and animals interacting as one is wonderful to see, both heartwarming and indicative of how humans and animals learn to survive. The lessons given on how to appear normal when caught out on the street, taking on the subtle characteristics of the perceived purer class apparently worked very well. Antonina seems to have the gift of communicating with the animals to such an extent she has learned how to be invisible, when to be still, how to observe, and many other animal instincts which she draws upon quite naturally in times of danger.

It would appear that Diane Ackerman has become Antonina in her writing at times, a part of her character; she seems so completely a part of the story, possibly because the foundation of her writing is based on Antonina's journals and diaries. Antonina appears to be a dark horse, outwardly appearing calm when she is "frightened to death" for her family, husband Jan, who is in the Underground Army, her son Rys, and later the birth of her daughter Teresa. While frightened when stopped by German soldiers, she thinks in her mind over and over such things as "put away your gun" while coming up with a plausible answer in a normal voice, and almost as though she were a hypnotist, the gun would be put away and she would be on her way unscathed.

This is a very interesting book, I learned a great deal about Polish and Jewish customs and history, and certainly I learned how devastated life and the country itself was during and at the end of WWII. I knew little about Poland and this was a very important book to me. There was enough softening and humor in the telling of the antics at the villa, but still the horror comes through of the Jewish Quarter, the Ghetto, the bombings, the deliberate burnings, the annihilation of not just the Jews, but the Polish people were also to be annihilated. This book is a must-read if we are ever to find an end to racism and despotism. I highly recommend this book to anyone.