Three Against Hitler by Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman

I don’t usually read non-fiction books but this one makes three in a row.  I always liked historical fiction books, because I could learn the history while being entertained.  In fiction the satire used as social commentary is often much more enjoyable than reality.  But Jax suggested Josh read Three Against Hitler, so I thought I would try it after he was done.  The hardest part about reading this book was knowing that it really happened just the way it said.

Style

Three Against Hitler follows your basic autobiography or even a memoirs format.  With the help of Jerry Borrowman, Rudi Wobbe tells the story of his life.  The title felt a little deceiving to me though.  If you are a history buff you may know the name Helmuth Huebener.  Although Helmuth plays a vital role in the events of the book, it is not his story.  I wanted the book to follow all three of the boys more closely (in fact there was a fourth boy who is mentioned throughout and I wonder why it was not Four Against Hitler).  A third party documentary would have been able to do that better.  But this is Rudi’s story and he tells of things from his own first hand knowledge.

Content

Brief history lesson.  Helmuth Huebener, Rudi Wobbe, and Karl-Heinz Schuibbe were three LDS teenagers at the start of WWII.  They witnessed the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s on a very personal level, as friends and church members were attacked for various reasons.  But unlike many who accepted the propaganda or suffered in silence, these three spoke out against the regime.

Helmuth and Rudi listened to BBC News Reports and distributed flyers contradicting Nazi propaganda.  Helmuth’s contempt for Hitler was blatant as he wrote flyers entitled, “Hitler the Murderer” and “Only Hitler is the Guilty One.”  Helmuth and Rudi recruited others to help spread their anti-Nazi flyers.  Unfortunately, they were ultimately caught and that was just the beginning.  Four young men, three under the age of 17, were charged with “Preparation to High Treason and Aiding and Abetting the Enemy.”  All four were found guilty to one degree or another, and sentenced as adults.

“In the movies the story always ends at a dramatic moment like this.  But time goes on for the living.  So it did for me.”
–Rudi Woobe

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The rest of the book follows Rudi’s imprisonment, liberation by the allies, and life after the war.  Rudi showed great faith and gratitude amid his trials.  He lived a life dedicated to truth and personal freedom.  I cried as he recounted reentering one of the prisons 40 years later.  It is because of people like Rudi that evil is kept at bay.

Recommendation

I give this book 10 out of 12 buttered rolls.  My only real criticism is that I wanted more detail, more history, more facts about each of the individuals involved.  However, it is a wonderful account of young men who are willing to think and act for themselves.  These are the type of young men I want my boys to look up to.

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss

I am trying to improve my free time.  What better way to improve my free time than to read more?  It is a little difficult to read with multiple children crawling over me and vying for my attention.  That’s okay, this super woman can do it all.  And so I will be giving brief book reviews as I complete each book.  (Don’t expect them too often, but as long as I am encouraging my kids to read more this summer, I will too.)

This week I finished The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss and I would highly recommend it.  Suggested for 8-12 year old readers, it was insightful for adults as well.

Introduction by the author

“This book is about my life, or rather part of my life, the part that took place in Holland during the Second World War.   In this book I have gone back to those years when I was a child, and Jewish, and therefore undesirable, when I had to hide from the Germans.

I have not tried to write a historical book, although it may have some historical value.  What I did try to write was a simple , human book, in which my sister an I suffered and complained, and sometime found fault with the Gentile family that took us in for a few years, in which the members of that family were not heroes but people, with strengths and weaknesses.           -Johanna Reiss”

STYLE

I had a hard time with the book’s literary style.  It is neither a “diary” nor a story with proper dialogue.  It isn’t even written in a “my memory” format.  Instead, the author writes in first person, and mixes thoughts and dialogue in a confused and vague manner.  However, once I familiarized myself with this slightly confusing style, I became enthralled with the message.

Content

The book roughly covers a four year period beginning in 1940 when Germany invaded Holland.  The narrator, Annie de Leeuw, is 8 years old when the German occupation puts her Jewish family in danger.  After two years, they separate and go into hiding.  Annie (now age 10) and her older sister, Sini (20), head to a farming community together and spend the next two years hiding upstairs.

The book is fairly uneventful, although tension mounts when the Nazi’s move their headquarters downstairs.  Even so, the author draws the reader into the world she experienced and had hoped to forget.  I found myself wondering how I would do in a similar circumstance.  Would I be brave and defiant?  Or weak and fearful?

The author genuinely moved me.  I ached for these young girls who never got to go outside to play, never got to make friends, and who had so little exercise that their muscles atrophied.  I felt their hopelessness as each season passed with no sign of deliverance.  And when the Allies finally arrived and liberated their village, the author does a marvelous job of helping me feel the girl’s trepidation to leave the house after such a long confinement.

As I read I found myself constantly stopping and asking Jax: “What would this be like?  If you could only have one book while in hiding, what would it be?  Can you imagine two months in bed just to stay warm and undetected?  How would it feel to just leave the house after such a long isolation?  How would it be to find out your neighbors had hidden Jews for two years?  What would it be like…”

Recommendation

I give The Upstairs Room 10 out of 12 buttered rolls.  It is a thought provoking book and the content is presented in an appropriate manner for children.  However, I suggest you read it before offering it to your child so you are able to discuss it together.  And be aware it is not in an easy to read, “novel” format.