In 1939, Rev. Waitstill Sharp, a young Unitarian minister, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, accepted a mission from the American Unitarian Association: they were to leave their home and young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help address the mounting refugee crisis.
Armed with only $40,000, the Sharps quickly learned the art of spy craft and covertly sheltered political dissidents and Jews, and helped them escape the Nazis. 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.
This compulsively readable true story offers readers a rare glimpse at high-stakes international relief efforts during WWII. Defying the Nazis is a fascinating portrait of resistance as told through the story of one courageous couple.
The UUA has created a congregational action guide with tools, materials and stories, available for download at the Defying the Nazis UU Action Project site.
Foreword by Ken Burns
Preface
CHAPTER TWO Learning the Ropes
CHAPTER THREE Witnesses to History
CHAPTER FOUR The Dying Republic
CHAPTER FIVE Einmarsch—The Invasion of Czechoslovakia
CHAPTER SIX Under the Swastika
CHAPTER SEVEN Changing the Rules
CHAPTER EIGHT Helping the Kulturträgers
CHAPTER NINE Money Talks
CHAPTER TEN Last Days in the Protectorate
CHAPTER ELEVEN The First Choice
CHAPTER TWELVE In Lisbon
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Helping Hands
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Reunion in Cerbère
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Dividing Forces
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Emergency Rescue Committee
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Milk Arrives
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Refugees’ Odyssey
CHAPTER NINETEEN Escape from Marseille
CHAPTER TWENTY The Children’s Journey
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The Home Front
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The Family
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Back to Europe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR A Run for Congress
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Palestine
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Civil Rights and Chicago
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Divergent Paths
Epilogue
Rescue and Relief Organizations
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Consulted
Index
“A clear, unpretentious volume that justly celebrates a couple who risked all for others.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Defying the Nazis hooks you, catches you up in the narrative, and pulls you along by all the elements of great storytelling...It reads like a spy novel, but it’s all true.” —Ken Burns
“This gripping tale of intrigue and courage, of love’s power and its loss, is both entertaining and inspiring. Heroes are often thought to be super-human. But Defying the Nazis proves that true heroes emerge not from the pages of comic books but the halls of everyday life. The common denominator is a stubborn faith in humanity and a conviction that the shape of history is ultimately in each of our hands.” —William F. Schulz, president of the UUA, 1985–1993; executive director of Amnesty International USA, 1994–2006; and president of the UUSC, 2010–2016
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