Abducted from the Hands of the Aggressor

The Rescue of Jewish Children in Belgium
by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel

On 20 May 1943, just before 10:00 p.m., the doorbell of the Très- Saint-Sauveur convent in Brussels, Belgium rang. Two armed men forced their way in, shouting "Hands up!" They were followed by several other armed men and one woman who stormed the convent, cut the phone lines, and ordered all the nuns to assemble in the Mother Superior's office. The nuns were forced to prepare 15 of their wards—Jewish girls who had been hidden under the guise of Catholic children in need—for a journey. In under an hour, the abductors had taken the children, locked up the nuns in the office, and Sister Marie Amélie (Leloup Eugénie)—the Mother Superior—in an upstairs room. On the way out, to reassure the children, one of the men whispered a few words in Yiddish. Who were these unusual abductors? In September 1942, Cardinal Van Roey, head of the Belgian Catholic church in Malines/ Mechelen, and the Comité de Défense des Juifs (CDJ), a Jewish clandestine rescue organization, encouraged the Mother Superior of the Trés-Saint-Sauveur convent to take 15 Jewish girls into hiding.

For nine months, the girls lived comfortably in the convent, adapting to their new surroundings and attending Christian religious lessons. On 20 May 1943, having received information of the Jewish children, the Gestapo raided the premises. Discovering that three girls were absent, they decided to return the next morning to collect all the children at once. "It is not to kill them," the head Gestapo agent told the Mother Superior sarcastically, "but to unite them with their families." Frantic, Sister Marie Amélie contacted Miss Jeanne (the wartime pseudonym of Ida Sterno, a Jewish activist with the CDJ) for help. She also appealed to Cardinal Van Roey who contacted Elisabeth, the Queen Mother of Belgium, through one of his aides. Elisabeth intervened but failed to persuade the German authorities to alter their plans. Throughout that day, Sister Marie Amélie and her nuns prayed for divine intervention, while simultaneously preparing the children's belongings for the following day's "departure." That night just before 10:00 p.m. their prayers were answered in the form of an unusual abduction. The leader of the raiding party was 23-year-old Paul Halter, a Jewish commander in the Belgian armed resistance.

Earlier that day, he had visited his friend, Toby Cymberknopf. "I found him very upset," Halter recalls. "He informed me that our friend, Bernard Fenerberg, had learned about the Gestapo's visit to the convent and their intent to return to collect the children. We realized that we only had a few hours at our disposal and thus decided to take it upon ourselves to rescue the children."

Halter, Cymberknopf, and Fenerberg, were joined by fellow-Jew, Jankiel Parancevitch, as well as Andrée Ermel and Floris Desmedt from the Belgian resistance. The six waited for dark, knowing the operation had to take place before the 10:00 p.m. curfew.

"We then forced our way in at gunpoint. We locked up the Mother Superior, ripped out the phone line, and tied the nuns to chairs in the convent's office," says Halter.Half an hour after the "kidnapping" one of the nuns managed to reach the window and alert a passer-by who called the Belgian police. The nuns told the police of the kidnapping and the police carried out their investigation until the next morning, before alerting the Gestapo (giving the kidnappers time to escape with the children). When the Gestapo appeared at the convent the next morning at 11:00 a.m. the children were long gone. From the convent, some had been handed over to their parents, four were brought to Halter's home, and others were taken to Cymberknopf's house. That morning, they had all been transferred to safe locations with help from the CDJ. The Gestapo interrogated the Mother Superior, who said she was certain the men had been sent by the Gestapo.

"Did they have a Jewish appearance?"

"No, not at all."

"Were they all armed?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you scream?"

"Scream? We didn't dare; they said they would shoot if we shouted."

Unable to disprove the nuns' story, the Gestapo left and the children were saved. Halter was later arrested and in September 1943 was deported to Auschwitz. Only after the war did he discover that all 15 girls had survived. Years later in 1991, as a participant in the first Hidden Children reunion in New York, he was reunited with several of the girls he saved. Sister Marie Amélie, Mother Superior of Très-Saint-Sauveur, was honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations in 2001, as were Andrée Ermel and her parents, Marcel and Céline Ermel (with whom one of the children, Myriam Frydland, was placed). Yad Vashem equally pays tribute to the CDJ, and the four Jews who participated in this rescue operation—a unique episode in the annals of the Holocaust in Belgium.

A Girl and a Half

Stefania’s Story:
For the last sixteen months of the war in Nazi occupied Poland, 17-year-old Stefania Podgorska and her seven-year-old sister Helena hid 13 Jews in their apartment's attic. It began with sheltering Max Diamant (he later changed his name to Joseph after the war due to prejudice) and later invited his brother and his brother's girlfriend, Danuta. But as time passed, the group multiplied. Despite the constant threat of imprisonment and execution if her thirteen Jewish friends were discovered, Stefania continued to provide them a safe haven. Not only that, she fed, clothed and disposed of their waste the entire time. Even when a young suitor attempted to court her, she turned him away. Towards the end of the war, an empty building from across the street was converted into a makeshift hospital.

One afternoon, two SS soldiers knocked on her door. “You have been ordered to vacate the premises within two hours.” They read to her from an official-looking sheet of paper.

“This residence has been commandeered by the Third Reich. The penalty for noncompliance is death.”

“Two hours! How will I find a place for my sister and me in just two hours?” she cried, but the soldiers merely repeated the orders and left.

For the next hour and a half Stefania ran through every street in town - but she could find nothing that would shelter all fifteen of them. After three years of looting and deprivation, the buildings were in worse shape than ever. There were doorways but no doors; houses without ceilings; rooms filled with the rubble of loose masonry and roofing material.

[In a 1990’s interview Stefania recalls] “Just ruins, nothing more. Almost two hours had gone already. So I came home. I started to cry. I said, ‘How can I leave thirteen people to certain death? I can run out, but these people will be dead…’ There was nothing available, nothing. Only twenty minutes left. I came home. I said nothing. All my thirteen came down to me, with the three children. The pressed against me, so tightly, they looked at me. My decision. Will I leave? My decision. Will I leave them or not?

“All thirteen of them said to me, ‘Run away. You don't have to die with us. We have to, but you don't have to die with us. You cannot help us anymore. Save your life and your little sister and run away, because you still have 10 minutes.’ Joseph pushed me. They said, ‘Run away. Don’t die with us. You cannot help us anymore. What you could do you did, but not now. Save your life and Helena. Go. Run away.’

“And all these people watched me, the children pressed so close I could hear their breathing, my sister too. So I really, I didn't know what to do. I said to them, ‘Well, first of all, come on. We will pray. We will ask God.’ You see, I had a picture which I bought as a little girl, of Jesus and his mother, and it always hung on my wall. And I said, ‘Come on - we will pray. We will ask God.’

“First I knelt, then my sister and all the thirteen after, behind me. And I prayed, and I turned to look. All thirteen were in deep, deep prayer. And I asked God not to let us be killed. Help, somehow. I cannot leave this apartment. I cannot leave thirteen people for certain death. I will be alive if I go, but thirteen lives will be finished - children too, and young people. I asked God, ‘Help, somehow.’

“And again I heard a voice, a woman’s voice. It was so beautiful, so nice, so quiet. She said to me, ‘Don’t worry. Everything will be all right. You will not leave your apartment. You will stay here, and they will take only one room. Everything will be all right. I am with you.’ And she told me, ‘Be quiet. I’ll tell you what to do.’ She said, ‘Send your people to the bunker. Open the door. Open the windows. Clean your apartment and sing.’

“I was like hypnotized. My head was bent down, and I was listening, I was listening and the voice said again, ‘Everything will be all right.’ Then it disappeared. I listened a few minutes more, but nothing more came.

“So I got up and said to my people, ‘Go the attic,’ exactly like the lady told me. I said, ‘I will not move from my apartment. I will stay here, so go to the attic and be quiet, very quiet.’

“And you see, I was completely different. My people looked at me, all my thirteen, and they thought something was wrong with my mind. But I said, ‘Okay now, go out, go to the bunker. Everything will be all right if you stay quiet over there.’

“And I opened the window and the doors, and I cleaned. I started to sing. I don't know how I became so happy. And all the neighbors came, and they said, ‘Miss Podgorska, what happened? Why haven't you moved? The Gestapo, the SS will come. They will kill you. This is war, this is the military. They have no mercy for the enemy - and they are our enemy. Go out. We don't want to see you killed. You're too nice, too young to be dead.’

“I said, ‘I have no place to go.’ They said, ‘Don't you have a friend? Go stay with her.’ I said, ‘No, I will not leave my apartment.’ And they also thought something was wrong with me.

“The janitor's husband came, and he said, ‘Miss Podgorska, I will throw you out. Go out, I don't want to see you be killed - I have no place to bury you.’ And he was serious. … I said, ‘No, I am sorry, I will not move from my apartment.’ And he said, ‘Something is wrong with you,’ but he left.

“I kept singing and cleaning my apartment, and exactly ten minutes past the two hours an SS man came. He was so friendly. He was laughing to me from a few yards away. He came closer to the window and he said - he spoke a little Polish, very broken but he spoke - and he said it was good that I hadn’t moved from my apartment because they would take only one room. This last room, they would take. He said, ‘Very well, you can stay.’”

However, two German nurses moved in, claiming one room as their own. But they were none the wiser of what was going on right over their heads. Months passed and the Russians conquered their village and for them the war was over. All thirteen Jews survived the persecution and were finally granted freedom. When the Russian soldiers realized what happened, they were amazed. Two girls, no, “a girl and a half” saved thirteen lives.

Max/Joseph and Stefania later married, immigrated to Israel and then eventually settled in America. Together they had one son. Stefania wrote down her inspirational story but it was rejected because according the publishers there are just too many holocaust stories out there. However, her story was adapted into a TV movie, called "Hidden in Silence" in 1996. It starred Kellie Martin as Stefania "Fusia" Podgorska, Tom Radcliffe as Max Diamant, Marian Ross as Mrs. Diamant, and Joss Ackland as a factory manager.

Max/Joseph has since passed away, but Stefania still lives in California.

Anne Frank Was Storyteller at Nazi Camp

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/anne-frank-told-stories-to-district-children-at-concentration-camp-survivor-says/19404021?icid=main|main|dl1|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fworld%2Farticle%2Fanne-frank-told-stories-to-district-children-at-concentration-camp-survivor-says%2F19404021








AMSTERDAM (March 17) - Frail, bone-cold and surrounded by death, Jewish teenager Anne Frank did her best to distract younger children from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp by telling them fairy tales, a Holocaust survivor says.

The account by Berthe Meijer, now 71, of being a 6-year-old inmate of Bergen Belsen offers a rare glimpse of Anne in the final weeks of her life in the German camp, struggling to keep up her own spirits even as she tried to lift the morale of the smaller children.

That Anne had a gift for storytelling was evident from the diary she kept during two years in hiding with her family in Amsterdam. The scattered pages were collected and published after the war in what became the most widely read book to emerge from the Holocaust.

But Meijer's memoir, being published in Dutch later this month, is the first to mention Anne's talent for spinning tales even in the despair of the camp.

The memoir deals with Meijer's acquaintance with Anne Frank in only a few pages, but she said she titled it "Life After Anne Frank" because it continues the tale of Holocaust victims where the famous diary leaves off.

"The dividing line is where the diary of Anne Frank ends. Because then you fall into a big black hole," Meijer told The Associated Press at her Amsterdam home.

Anne's final diary entry was on Aug. 1, 1944, three days before she and her family were arrested. She and her older sister Margot died in March 1945 in a typhus epidemic that swept through Bergen Belsen, just two weeks before the camp was liberated. Anne was 15.

The stories Anne told were "fairy tales in which nasty things happened, and that was of course very much related to the war," Meijer said.

"But as a kid you get lifted out of the everyday nastiness. That's something I remember. You're listening to someone telling something that has nothing to do with what's happening around you - so it's a bit of escape."

In addition to her diary, Frank wrote several essays and fragments of fiction while in hiding, including stories about a fairy and a gnome, though they are usually considered only of historical interest. They have been published as "Tales From the Secret Annex."

The stories she told in the camp were "about princes and elves and those kind of figures," Meijer said. Despite having unhappy twists, the tales were "quite a bit less terrible than what we saw around us. So you thought: they didn't have it so bad. As a child, you think very primitively about that kind of thing."

Around 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands before the 1940-45 Nazi occupation. Of those, 107,000 were deported to Germany and only 5,200 survived.

The Meijers and the Franks were acquaintances before the war: members of both families had fled Germany during the rise of Hitler's regime and found a place in the tightly-knit Jewish community in Amsterdam. The Meijers lived on the same street where Anne attended a Montessori elementary school.

The Franks went into hiding in a secret apartment above a canal-side warehouse where Otto Frank, Anne's father, had his business.

The Meijers hid in their own home, boarding up the windows and hanging a sign on the door that read "contagious disease" to discourage visitors. They were caught in early 1944 and deported from the Netherlands that March. Both of Berthe's parents died at Bergen Belsen in January 1945.

Dr. Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, said it's plausible that Meijer would have recognized Frank and stored the memory all these years if she knew her before the war and if she met her again at the camp.

A child of six or seven can "form memories reasonably well and hold on to them, though not in the same way as an adult," he said.

Records obtained by The Associated Press from Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial authority, show that Berthe was an inmate of Bergen Belsen for 13 months until it was liberated in April 1945.

Annemarie Bekker, a spokeswoman for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam said Berthe Meijer has previously been interviewed by museum historians and she had no reason to doubt Meijer's testimony.

"It could very well be true," Bekker said. "We can't confirm it or deny it."

Hannah Pick-Goslar, a childhood friend of Anne Frank who also met her in Bergen Belsen, said she doubted Meijer's recollection was accurate.

"In that condition, you almost died," she said in a telephone call from her home in Jerusalem. "You had no strength to tell stories."

Meijer acknowledged that her recollections of the Frank sisters were fleeting.

She said there were many reasons she had waited until now to tell her story - not least that she was busy growing up, having a career and raising a family. She said a dedication ceremony at Bergen Belsen in 2006 made her realize how few Dutch survivors are still alive, and that there is little record of the impact the camp had on their later lives.

In addition, she suppressed her memories for years, and the horror of the camps have always been a difficult or taboo subject: at the orphanage where Meijer grew up, in polite company afterward, and even among her fellow survivors.

Still, "you remember a lot at age 7," she said. Meijer turned 7 in April 1945.

"You had to take off your clothes because there were lice in them that spread typhus. And you were wrapped in those blankets. And you sat somewhere in a corner half-frozen."

She said Margot had asked Anne to tell stories to cheer up the children, and that it was difficult for Anne to summon the enthusiasm.

The last time she saw Anne was in the camp infirmary, but they were both sick and "too weak and sad to even be pleasant to each other," she wrote.

In some ways, Meijer grew up to be the person Anne had hoped to be, a journalist, a columnist and an author, albeit of a popular Dutch cookbook.

In her diary Anne wrote in April 1944: "I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?"

Although Meijer associated with leading Dutch writers and artists, she said she suffered lifelong symptoms of post-traumatic stress, with overwhelming memories and emotions surfacing unexpectedly.

To this day she has a paralyzing fear of crowds and public transportation.

In her book, she wonders about her choices in marrying first a gifted, but alcoholic architect and later one of the Netherlands' most famed journalists - not coincidentally, another Bergen Belsen survivor.

She says she can laugh "through the tears" about having become a culinary expert years after fantasizing endlessly about food while starving at the camp.

She describes how the simple act of cleaning sauce from a pan with her finger can trigger the ambiguously pleasant memory of being allowed to lick one of the camp's enormous cooking vats.

And she proudly shows off a concealed crawl space behind an opening in her cellar where she could hide if need be.

In history books, "the war ends when we were liberated. No. Not for a lot of people," she says.

"Not for the lives of the people who survived those camps or went into hiding or had traumatic experiences because of that war. Those things, they don't go away."

The White Rose (a.k.a.: Die Weiße Rose)

Movie Description:
The beautiful Lena Stolze stars in this acclaimed feature based on the true story of five German students and their professor who formed a secret society dedicated to protesting the Nazi regime. Known collectively as the “White Rose”, the Munich-based group distributed anti-Hitler literature in a resistance effort which cost them their lives. Initially, the German government refused to allow the film to be shown abroad due to an epilogue which pointedly observed that the legal judgment condemning the White Rose society had never been rescinded. Ultimately, the political controversy surrounding Verhoeven's film directly caused the German government to officially invalidate the Nazi “People's Court” system that sentenced the group to death.





Summary:
The movie opens with Sophie Scholl arriving in Munich on a train, to attend the university with her brother. Upon arrival she meets Hans’ close knit group friends and they kindly throw her a birthday party. Although she enjoys her classes, her newfound friends, she is none the wiser about her brother’s peculiar activities until she stumbles upon this eye opening leaflet written by the clandestine group, the White Rose. Sophie agrees with the leaflet and hangs onto it, and is stunned when she discovers that her brother is one of the authors of it. Despite the group’s opposition to allow her to take part, she forces her way in and runs errands for them, soon becoming a full-fledged member. The movie closely follows the groups escapades, from stealing paper to buying an enormous amount of stamps (which was forbidden and suspicious in the days of Nazi Germany) to the Scholl’s father’s arrest for making a derogatory comment against Hitler.
When the men of the group are sent to the eastern front, they must temporarily suspend their leaflet distribution until they return. Hans and his friends witness the execution of Jewish prisoners and it inspires them to continue their mission no matter what. While Hans is in the east, Sophie works at an ammunition factory and while she is working, she watches with satisfaction and foreign prisoner sabotage her work.
When the students return for the winter semester, they are faced with new challenges. The acceptance of two new members, Professor Huber and Gisela Schertling. The professor makes an excellent contribution of writing his own leaflet, however, there is a confrontation when it is edited. As for Gisela, she listens to a mandatory speech (which the core members of the White Rose skip) of Gauleiter Geisler and when he insults the female students with degrading and lewd comments, a spontaneous protest erupts from the majority of the students there.
With this new development, along with the dismal surrender at Stalingrad, Hans and Sophie decide to make the daring move of distributing the sixth leaflet at the university itself, in broad daylight. Their decision seals their fate. Observed by a custodian, they are reported and arrested, and interrogated. Within five days, they are executed.

My Thoughts:
For when it was made, the White Rose is a good movie but it is also a product of its time. It’s a little cheesy at times, considering the music and some of the melodramatic acting. To me the only convincing actor of the film was Ulrich Turkur who portrayed Willi Graf. He plays a relatively small roll but he is a fine actor. Counting this role, he has acted in three other movies based in Nazi Germany: “Bonhoeffer,” “Amen,” and “Stauffenberg.” Lena Stolze, who portrayed Sophie, did an okay job at displaying Sophie’s youth and enthusiasm; she looked the age and she even looked like the Sophie herself. But at times the character came across as silly as a young teen when she was in fact in her twenties. She failed to capture Sophie’s depth and inner strength. I wish to high heavens that somebody would remake this movie. A few years ago, Angelica Houston was working to bring the story to the big screen once again, but unfortunately it has fallen by the way side. Christina Ricci was slated to star as Sophie, Albert Finney was to be Robert Mohr, and Liam Neeson had a role as well. I think with the release of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” over in Germany, Angelica Houston opted not to go through with it. However, I hope (and sometimes pray) that she might revive this project.

Sex/Nudity:
During an argument between Hans and Sophie, Hans is without a shirt and it appears he is about to take a bath. In a scene closer to the end of the movie, Sophie is struggling to get into her sweater just as Hans enters the room.
There are three objectionable scenes that stick out in my mind. The first scene involves Sophie and her boyfriend Fritz, who is on leave and visiting her. As they kiss and are on the verge of sex, Sophie’s blouse is off and her bra is on, he is kissing her upper body. A disagreement prevents them from going any further. The second scene is of Hans and his current girlfriend Traute. They are outside and it is implied they just had sex, she is upset with him and struggling to get into her bra, and her bare chest is partially in view. The third scene is not sexual or romantic. It is when Hans and his friends are on the eastern front; they observe a group of Jewish men who are nude and awaiting their execution. There is one last scene, that isn’t sexual but it appeared odd to me. Days before Hans and Sophie pass out the final leaflet, Sophie goes to Hans when he is in his bed and climbs in beside him, and places her head on his chest. I know it was meant to be innocent, but in this day and age it was strange. Of course it could be possible that over in Europe siblings are more affectionate.

Violence:
I don’t recall much violence, except for one part and no one is physically harmed. On one of their missions at night, the men of the group paint anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler slogans on walls and monuments. They are caught and to get away, one of the members knocks a can of paint onto the head of a Gestapo agent. Also, when protest erupts at the Gauleiter’s speech, the women are forcibly restrained and forbidden to leave. Angered by this action against the ladies, the men of the university burst through the doors and overtake the guards.

Language:
There is one use of the d-word and Sophie and her friend mention the s-word in singing a little ditty. The main language concern of this movie stems from the historic speech by Gauleiter Geisler. He not only states that women do not belong at the university, that they more useful birthing a son for Hitler and goes as far as offering one of his adjutants so that women could have an enjoyable experience.

Religion:
Most of the members of the White Rose were professing Christians, but for the most part of the movie this is downplayed. There is a mention of the famous sermon by Count von Galen. He was a bishop of Munster and was the only clergyman to vehemently and publicly oppose the Nazi regime. Though Hitler and the Nazis had hoped to have von Galen arrested and sent to prison, the bishop could not be touched due to the devotion of his followers. The Scholl’s collected his sermons and passed them out as well. The most obvious reference to faith was close to the end of the movie, before the execution, when Sophie is speaking to her mother. Her mother reminds her of Jesus and Sophie encourages her mother to remember Him too.





For Further References:

Movies:
Five Last Days (Fünf letzte Tage) (1982)- Details the last five days of Sophie Scholl’s life from the point of view of her cell mate, Else Gebel. This movie was actually made prior to “The White Rose” and by a different director. Unfortunately I have never watched it (it is difficult to find) but if you have a chance, I suggest you see it.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)- In my personal opinion, this is the best movie ever made on Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. It follows the final days of Sophie Scholl’s life; the distribution of the leaflets at the university, arrest, interrogations, trial and ultimately her death. The director and scriptwriter delved into the personal lives of the White Rose members, the transcripts of the interrogations, letters, interviews, biographies, etc. The psychological and intellectual battles between Sophie and Gestapo agent Robert Mohr are superb. I command you to watch this; you’ll walk away a different person.

Books:
“The Rose of Treason,” by James DeVita- A play based on the White Rose group and their activities.

“Sophie Scholl and the White Rose,” by Annette Dumbach and Jud Newborn- (originally titled, “Shattering the German Night”) a newly re-released biography on Sophie Scholl, her life and involvement with the White Rose.

“Ceremony of Innocence,” by James D. Forman- A bio-fiction on Hans Scholl, written in the 1970’s. Although it is entertaining, newly discovered facts on Hans and the White Rose makes this book dated.

“A Nobel Treason,” by Richard Hanser- A fantastic non-fiction book on the White Rose and the personal lives of those involved in the group. Much detail, I highly recommend it.

“Sophie Scholl: The Real Story Behind Germany’s Resistance Heroine,” by Frank McDonough- A new biography on Sophie Scholl, nicely written but I wish it were longer and that it went deeper on her personal life, and reasons for joining the White Rose.

“At the Heart of the White Rose,” by Hans and Sophie Scholl- The diaries and letters of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Although obviously pre-selected and edited, it delves into their hearts and minds and their motives of why the White Rose was formed.

“The White Rose,” by Inge Scholl (originally, “Students Against Tyranny”)- The original book to shed light on the resistance group, written by Hans and Sophie’s older sister, Inge. A must read for any White Rose enthusiast.

“The Short Life of Sophie Scholl,” by Hermann Vinke- A nice biography on Sophie, I wish I could complement it more but it has been awhile since I’ve read it.

“Self-Control,” by Mary Brunton

Author Bio:
Mary Brunton (née Balfour) (1 November 1778 – 7 December 1818) was a Scottish novelist.
Mary was the daughter Colonel Thomas Balfour of Elwick, a British Army officer and Frances Ligonier, sister of the second earl of Ligonier. She was born on 1 November 1778 in the Orkney Islands. Mary's early education was limited, though her mother did teach her music, Italian, and French.
Around 1798, Mary met and fell in love with the Reverend Alexander Brunton, a Church of Scotland minister, who later became a Professor of Oriental Languages in the University of Edinburgh. Although Mary's mother disapproved of the match, she married Brunton in 1798 and they had a happy marriage, which included companionship and mutual interests. After twenty years of marriage, Mary finally became pregnant at age forty, but she died in 1818 in Edinburgh after giving birth to a still-born son.
Brunton started to write her first novel in 1809. Like many of her fellow novelists, she also recorded bits and pieces of daily life in a journal. In her lifetime, Brunton wrote two complete novels, Self-Control (1811) and Discipline (1814). After her death, her unfinished work Emmeline, along with a Memoir, was published by her husband in 1819.

My Description:
“Self-Control” is the little-known tale of Laura Montreville, a seventeen-year-old girl living in the Regency Era, daughter of a widowed Captain Montreville. What makes this piece of work stand out from most classics of the Regency Era is the heroine’s strong faith in Christ. Not only does she “talk the talk” she “walks the walk.” There are several scenes of Laura praying, speaking of her faith and following the ways of God rather than the ways of man. When family-friend, Colonel Hargrave, confesses to her of his passionate and violent love for her, and continually pursues her even after she refuses him, it takes all of her self-control to hold fast to the faith she professes.

My Thoughts:
I really loved “Self-Control” and I consider it on par with Jane Austen’s canon, unfortunately neither the author nor this story has received much attention the last few decades. Published a year prior to “Sense and Sensibility,” it shares a lot of common themes with Austen’s first published work. Like Marianne Dashwood, Laura discovers that though passion and attraction often awakens love, it seldom lasts. She learns that love grounded in friendship, respect and selflessness is the love that never ends. I wish that someone would take notice of this novel and have it reissued into a brand-spanking new edition, the way Bethany House has done with Austen’s classics. The edition I read had the characters’ dialogs running together and it made it difficult to decipher who was speaking. Also, I firmly believe that “Self-Control” would transfer well to screen (hint, hint Emma Thompson, or BBC). Anyway, anybody who loves Austen or “Sense and Sensibility”, I highly recommend this book for you.

I’m Taking a Break

No, not from the blog world, but from the subject I have been writing about and researching for the last seven years straight: the Holocaust. Actually, I have been reading about the holocaust longer than that. When I was twelve and received “The Diary of a Young Girl” for my birthday, I had to do some background research to completely understand what was going on in the Netherlands when Anne Frank wrote in her diary. And then in 2003 I decided to write about the Holocaust in Poland and have surrounded myself with that dark period in history every since. Not only that, for the last two years I have dug deeper into the subject of Nazi Germany for a future fictional series that I would like to tackle.

In the last six months or so, I have become overwhelmed and a little depressed at times and I think its due to consistently reading about the Holocaust. So, I need a break from writing and reading about it. It won’t be forever, but it needs to be for awhile so I can regroup emotionally.

In the mean time, I plan to write about more lighthearted subjects. In fact, two other authors and I intend to write a series together which should be awesome. Right now I’m beginning a story that is based in the Edwardian era in my own beloved state.

Perhaps six months to a year from now I can pick up where I left off. Until then, its going to be refreshing to write about something that isn’t connected to genocide, hatred, evil, etc…

Have you ever seen a miracle?

Yes, my entire life and existance on earth is one big miracle. I shouldn't even be alive. Our family doctor at the time miscalculated my due date and I ended up being a month overdue. My mom was in labor off and on for an entire month. Come December 30th, Mom went into the hospital and my heart beat had dropped, along with the fact that the cord detached itself and I was receiving no nutrition. The family doctor was no where to be found. Instead another doctor was in the ER who wasn't supposed to be there that day but he was checking on another patient of his. He performed a c-section on my mom and saved my life. Talk about Divine Appointment!

We are a family who doesn't just believe in miracles, we rely on them.