Journey Through the Night

Journey Through the Night by Anne De Vries
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This book opens just before the start of World War II in the Netherlands. John is part of a Christian family, and they just want to be safe. But then around them, they see others on their way to death camps. They begin by harboring a "diver," a young man named William who helped British pilots escape from German hands. They go on to take in pilots who had been shot down, all the while keeping them safely hidden and away from the prying eyes of ones who earn 30 guilders for each life. One man had become very rich on the deaths of hidden Jews, pilots, and those who helped them. John and his father see no choice but to become more involved in the underground. It did not begin consciously at first, they were just offering a safe haven to those who would be killed if caught. But they couldn't stop there. It wouldn't be right to let things go on as they were without doing what they could.

This book does not paint any people as heroes, as we usually think of them. Instead, it portrays them as heroes usually are, ordinary people who see they must do what is right, whatever it cost. People whose names will never be remembered by many people who benefit from their sacrifices.

They listen to their forbidden radio, to hear messages from the Queen and her ministers. They realize that the underground is an army, and they are fighting a war. The leaders in their area had a meeting one day over what they would do about a certain spy who was responsible for many, many deaths. They decided that he would have to be "taken out" to save the lives of many others. One day John and William met up with him, and "took him out." John's anguish over his responsibility in the death of another person is portrayed clearly as he later asks his father, "This is a war, right? We are fighting for the right, aren't we? We had do to it to save others, right?" War is not a comfortable or pretty thing, or an adventure.

I don't know if I can say I enjoyed this book, but I believe it was a good book. I couldn't put it down once I had started it. It chronicles events until the end of the war, and the family is always concerned about doing what was right. I would not recommend this book to those who are nonresistant. It does give a picture of the war, and Anne De Vries lived through it, and should know of what she is writing. She also knows how to touch the heart.