The Weidners in Wartime: Letters of Daily Survival and Heroism Under Nazi Rule: 1 (Weidner Collection)

The Weidners in Wartime is the intimate story told in their own words of a family separated by war. Despite the dangers of writing under the inspection of censors their letters paint a vivid portrait of decent human beings fighting valiantly to maintain their courage their humor and their faith during one of historys darkest hours. It so happens that one member of the family is also a leader of the resistance whose heroic actions to save fleeing refugees will make him a hunted man and one of the greatest rescuers of World War II.In 1942 Jean Henri Weidner founded the Dutch-Paris Line to guide Jews downed Allied pilots and other persecuted people out of Nazi-occupied Europe to freedom in Switzerland and Spain. The Line spanned four countries and hid or escorted to safety an estimated 3000 people many faced with certain death. After the war Jean was awarded the French Legion of Honor and the United States Medal of Freedom. He is honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at Israels Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem. Yet Jeans actions to save the lives of strangers comes at a terrible cost to those he holds most dear.Through these never-before-published documents-expertly selected translated and introduced by Janet Holmes Carper-readers will encounter the daily lives of an ordinary but remarkable family bound together by their deep love for each other and by their prolific correspondence across great distances. The frequently unvarnished words of the Weidners (including Jean; his spirited younger sisters Gabrielle and Annette; his stalwart parents Papa and Mama Weidner; and his fiancé and soon-to-be bride Elisabeth Cartier) provide a unique window into historical events that continue to resonate in the present. Jeans secret resistance work is barely alluded to in the familys letters. What emerges instead are the distinctive personalities voices and moral characters of the Weidners as they face the harsh realities of the war with as much bravery and good cheer as they can muster.The Weidners in Wartime builds to a devastating climax raising profound questions about humanity and inhumanity loyalty and betrayal duty and sacrifice that do not admit easy answers and that linger after the book is set down. These letters written more than 75 years ago might inspire in new generations a commitment to selfless and courageous action in the spirit of Jean Gabrielle Annette and the other members of the Dutch-Paris escape line.