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Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War

Amazon.com Price:  $12.90 (as of 02/05/2019 14:38 PST- Details)

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Description

The little-known story of the Sharps whose rescue and relief missions across Europe all over World War II saved the lives of countless Jews, refugees, and political dissidents. Official companion to the Ken Burns PBS film.

For readers captivated by the story of Antonina Zabinski as told in The Zookeeper’s Wife and other stories of rescue missions all over WWII, Defying the Nazis is an very important read.

In 1939, the Reverend Waitstill Sharp, a young Unitarian minister, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, accepted a mission from the American Unitarian Association: they were to depart their home and young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and commute to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to assist address the mounting refugee crisis. Seventeen ministers had been asked to undertake this mission and had declined; Rev. Sharp used to be the first to just accept the call for volunteers in Europe.

Armed with only $40,000, Waitstill and Martha quickly learned the art of spy craft and undertook dangerous rescue and relief missions across war-torn Europe, saving refugees, political dissidents, and Jews at the eve of World War II. After narrowly avoiding the Gestapo themselves, the Sharps returned to Europe in 1940 as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee and continued their relief efforts in Vichy France.

A fascinating portrait of resistance as told in the course of the story of one courageous couple, Defying the Nazis offers a rare glimpse at high-stakes international relief efforts all over WWII and tells the remarkable true story of a couple whose faith and commitment to social justice inspired them to risk their lives to avoid wasting countless others.

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