Germany

Materials from Germany

Silent in an Evil Time: The Brave War of Edith Cavell

Dutiful nurse, hospital matron, courageous resistance fighter, Edith Cavell was all of these. A British citizen, the forty-eight-year-old Cavell was matron of an institute for nurses in the suburbs of Brussels at the outbreak of World War I. Dedicated to the methods of Florence Nightingale, her intelligence and ferocious sense of duty had transformed the institute into a leading training center.When the Germans captured Belgium in the fall of 1914, an organization was formed to assist British and French soldiers trapped behind German lines. Edith was asked to help and she didn’t hesitate. From that moment forward, Edith sheltered escaping soldiers in her hospital, using trickery to keep the suspicious Germans from discovering them. She helped arrange a secret route to neutral Holland and back to England at great personal risk, enabling soldiers of all ranks to slip through German lines. Using the institute as part of an elaborate Allied escape route, Edith Cavell was responsible for one thousand soldiers eventually making their way home.But Cavell’s role was discovered and a German military court put her on trial in Brussels, where she was sentenced to be executed by firing squad. On October 12, 1915, she put on her nurse’s uniform and met her fate, immediately becoming a worldwide martyr and rallying point for the British in their war against Germany.

Sophie’s Dance

Whenever Sophie’s parents go out, Sophie gets to visit her grandmother. But tonight her parents are going to the big dance that only happens once a year, and Sophie desperately wants to go. Grandma explains that children are too young to stay out so late, and grandmothers are too old. Sophie convinces Grandma that dressing up in their finest and going to the dance is too important to skip. And when they get there, perhaps they’ll meet someone special who makes the trip worth the trouble.

Holocaust

Explaining the complex political and social backdrop that allowed the Holocaust to occur, as well as its progression and aftermath, this comprehensive volume contains first-hand testimony from survivors and enables readers to appreciate the impact of the Holocaust on real people and the lives they and their families have rebuilt today.

Lullabies, Lyrics and Gallows Songs

Christian Morgenstern wrote this collection of lyric verses and nonsense poetry, and Lisbeth Zwerger’s work is a perfect counterpoint to Morgenstern’s unusual imagery.

 

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk

One night, the Great Freddie, a young ventriloquist, is possessed by a dybbuk, a Jewish spirit. The dybbuk is a scrappy demon who glows as if spray-painted by moonlight. The dybbuk is revealed to be the ghost of a twelve-year-old boy named Avrom Amos, a victim of the Nazis during World War II. In a plucky scheme to seek revenge, he commandeers The Great Freddie’s stage act and entraps the entertainer in the postwar ashes of Germany. Behind the footlights, the dybbuk lights up the terrible fate of a million and a half Jewish children, including Avrom himself.

The Fisherman and His Wife

Rachel Isadora brings another fabulous fairy tale to brilliant life with her stunning collages. The Brothers Grimm story of the kind fisherman who catches an enchanted fish, and his greedy wife who always wants more, is perfect for these “give-me” times.

Flusi: The Sock Monster

Mum puts 10 socks in a washing machine and only nine socks come out. How they disappear (and where they go) is a mystery. Inexplicable, that is, until Maja meets Flusi, the Sock Monster. He’s a little creature of indisputable fierceness, overcome by desire to possess as many socks as possible.

The Klipfish Code

The year is 1942, and Norway is under Nazi occupation. Ten-year-old Merit is sent with her younger brother to Godoy Island to live with her aunt and grandfather after Germans Bomb Norway in 1940. Merit longs to join her parents in the Resistance and when her aunt, a teacher, is taken away two years later, she resents even more the Nazis’ presence and her grandfather’s refusal to oppose them.