How to Flee the Gestapo

Today, May 5, is the anniversary of the Liberation of the entirety of the Netherlands in 1945.  Last night, May 4, communities across the country commemorated the terrible losses that the Dutch people suffered during the Second World War.  It’s symbolically appropriate that Oxford University Press will release my book on Dutch-Paris in the US today.   The Escape Line: How the Ordinary Heroes of Dutch-Paris Resisted the Nazi Occupation of Western Europe will be available in the UK in early June. This is the same book that was translated into Dutch as Gewone Helden, except for a new conclusion and a few more anecdotes about the aviator escape line. It also has a few more photos (thank you to the families who provided them).

The Escape Line begins in 1942 when individuals started working together in Lyon, Brussels and Paris to rescue Jews from the Nazis. As the occupation continued and the Nazis expanded their persecution, these original groups helped more and more people. They found ways to make false documents, hide men, women and children, and escort fugitives across national borders. In 1943 these groups linked together into Dutch-Paris to provide an escape line that stretched from the Netherlands through Belgium and France to both Switzerland and Spain. Beginning by relaying microfilms for the Dutch government in exile, Dutch-Paris soon became a clandestine courier service for resistance groups across western Europe. They helped Jews, young men avoiding the forced labor draft, resisters with the Gestapo on their trails, and civilians trying to join the Allies. Their decision to also take downed Allied airmen to Spain attracted the attention of the German military secret police, the Abwehr, which led to a massive round up of Dutch-Paris resisters in February 1944. Despite the destruction of the aviator escape line, Dutch-Paris continued to support civilians in hiding, take civilians to Switzerland and Spain, and deliver illegal documents until the Liberation.

I’ll be participating in a week-long online interview about the book with Nonfiction Fans, Illuminating Fabulous Nonfiction  click this link

You can get The Escape Line wherever you buy your books.  If you prefer to order online, consider  Brilliant Books, an independent bookseller in northern Michigan that offers free shipping in the US – click this link – or direct from Oxford University Press with this link.