This new book, “A Light in the Northern Sea: Denmark’s Incredible Rescue of Their Jewish Citizens During WWII” (Citadel, 272 pgs., $29 hardcover) probably would have been overlooked had it not been for one of my sons seeking a birthday present for me.
It had not come to my attention at local bookstores, and Carter told me he would take it back if I was not interested. But after only six pages, I emailed him and said he had picked a winner.
Author Tim Brady, author of “Three Ordinary Girls,” a highly acclaimed account of teenage Dutch resisters during World War II, discovered another remarkable story. This time it involves nearly an entire country saving their fellow Jewish residents.
While the great sweep of WWII is widely and powerfully known, “readers have grown more interested in the nooks and crannies of the history,” Brady told an interviewer earlier this summer. Part of what makes this Danish story so vital is that it took them three years of occupation for an effective resistance to evolve.
What pushed the nation to rebel? The Nazis moved to round up and remove the Jews who were longtime Danish citizens.
This is a nonfiction account that reads more like a fiction thriller. It is super detailed and multilayered. This is the type of book that “educates, enlightens and greatly expands our understanding, as we are given a deep look at a slice of history,” one reviewer wrote.
Brady goes into details regarding specific resisters who go to great lengths to enlist colleagues — who talk to their friends and families — to help the Jews, who had never caused the average citizen any harm.
Denmark, then and now, is a nation of few people compared with the rest of Europe. Likewise, the number of Jews in Denmark in 1940 were few, only about 8,000. Also, unlike most of Europe there had been no trials nor tribulations between Jews and their Christian neighbors.
German troops rushed into Denmark in 1940 en route to conquer the rest of Europe. Its take-over was relatively quiet after reaching a “cooperative” agreement with the Danish government. The local governments continued to operate while Nazi troops walked the streets. The Danish army and navy did not officially exist, although troops remained in their barracks.
Then, after a bombing attack by a group of resisters on a proposed German barracks that nearly destroyed the building, Hitler turned his wrath toward the Danish Jews. Word was out that on Oct. 1, 1943 — the first day of the Jewish New Year — the roundup of Jews would begin nationwide.
The plan was to ultimately transport them to concentration camps in Germany and ultimately to death camps.
With that, Brady stresses, the miracle began.
Using any means possible, including their own remarkable courage, Danes quietly arranged for Jews to escape. At the end, 95% of Denmark’s Jews survived — crossing the narrow channel, Oresund, between Copenhagen and its surrounding area and neutral Sweden.
With the Jews saved, Brady devotes the last 100 pages to the work of the resistance for the remainder of the war.
Look where we are today!
Robert B. Reich has fought bullies all his life and examines those ordeals in “Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America” (Knopf, 416 pgs., $30). This is simply an extraordinary examination of baby-boom America — its successes and its failures — and the historic ride of his life.
“Coming Up Short: A Memoir of my America” (Knopf, 416 pgs., $30)
The adviser to several presidents, Reich pleads for America to get back to where it belongs.
As Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders writes, Reich “is a rare academic who addresses the real problems facing America and fights to fix an economic system propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency. He has used every position and platform at his disposal to reverse unbridled pursuit of power and profit by the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working people.”
There is not a major Democratic political figure in his now 79-year-old lifespan who escapes discussion and analysis. Sanders, Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are all featured in the book. He writes whether they have made America a better place.
A Dartmouth College, Oxford and Yale Law School graduate, Reich taught government at Harvard (1981-1992); social and economic policy at Brandeis University (1997-2005) and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley (2007-2023).
He served as secretary of labor (1993-1997) in President Clinton’s administration.
Reich also advised the presidential campaigns of Obama (2008), Sanders (2016) and Hillary Clinton (2016). In 2002, he ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Massachusetts and lost to Shannon O’Brien, who eventually lost to Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
New York Times bestselling author Molly Jong-Fast put it simply: “Robert Reich is one of the most important political thinkers and activists of our time and ‘Coming up Short’ is essential reading for understanding this moment in American history.”
Two national books to read
“The Secret of Secrets: A Novel” (Doubleday, 688 pgs., $38)
It’s been about eight years since Professor Robert Langdon has found himself ensnared in another global conspiracy. His narrator Dan Brown, according to national reviewers, has developed another mind-bending adventure in “The Secret of Secrets: A Novel” (Doubleday, 688 pgs., $38). This sixth installment in his “Da Vinci Code” series was an instant New York Times bestseller.
“John Williams: A Composer’s Life” (Oxford University Press, 640 pgs., $39.99) by Tim Greiving is a glowing account of one of the most important film composers of all time. He’s 93 years old and still writing music.
He has written memorable themes for the movies: “Star Wars,” ”Indiana Jones,” “Jaws,” “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List” and the “Harry Potter” series. Add to those dozens of fanfares, concerti and a few just nice tunes and you have a lifetime of simply good — no, great — music. In total Williams has had 54 Academy Award nominations, according to Greiving, winning five Oscars.
Have a comment or suggestion for Kale? Contact him at Kalehouse@aol.com.
