Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Grete always longed to be a mother, but it never happened for her so, as the clouds of war gather over Europe, she’s devoting her time to helping Jewish children escape the Nazis. She remembers the face of every single child she’s taken on trains to freedom in the Netherlands. The danger increases with each trip, but, today, she has to get her best friend’s children to safety, because they are closest thing she has to family.
But at the border, the train screeches to a halt and she hears the shout of a Nazi guard. Then the sound of boots coming towards their carriage. When the door bursts open, she draws herself up tall, and prepares to face the interrogation she knows will come. With shaking hands, she passes over Rosa and Adele’s tattered papers and hopes they aren’t scrutinised too closely.
Grete is ready to do whatever it takes to keep her small charges safe…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Children on the Train to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Children on the Train, the latest book from Anna Stuart, is inspired by the true story of Geertruida Wijsmuller, a woman who I had never heard of prior to reading this book but to say I found her inspirational would be an understatement. For during the years prior to the outbreak of World War Two she was one of several who led the Kindertransport evacuating Jewish children from Germany to England and then continued her remarkable and selfless work throughout the war. The book is split into three distinct parts with the story moving along at a brisk pace. I had feared things might become too repetitive but that wasn’t the case and I found myself reading good chunks of the book at one time which is saying something considering my attention span is not the best at the moment. The story is told from two different perspectives, that of Grete, a Dutch social worker who becomes deeply involved in the evacuation of hundreds of Jewish children and Helena a young Jewish woman whose family are facing danger and persecution.
From the outset Grete was a fantastically written character who goes above and beyond the call of duty time and time again. At her heart she is a good person who firmly believes that love, decency, care and kindness are what counts and she demonstrates these traits through every thought, action, word and deed. Grete is a social worker in Amsterdam who initially starts to work for the Dutch Refugee Committee in 1938 who are trying to evacuate Jewish children from Germany as Hitler’s rise to power increases along with his fanatical beliefs regarding Jewish people. Grete was very forward in her thinking and could see what was coming down the line and the lack of her own children with her husband Aartur means the love and passion she would have had for her own children is funnelled into saving as many children as possible. Her childlessness is a theme that runs throughout the book and it makes her a formidable person when it comes to dealing with bureaucracy. She challenges her energies into getting good people out of the most terrible situations so that they can live on and love each other.
I loved that Grete was practical and took no nonsense from anyone. She was the matriarch of the book, the leader whom everyone turned too because they knew she had the tenacity and the gift of words to get people out of sticky situations or have those in power overturn decisions. Through her work with the Kindertransport hundreds of children were saved. There were lots of individual children’s stories that featured throughout and but including this it really brought it home for me how awful it must have been to be uprooted from your parents and taken to a different country not knowing would you ever return. Yes, Grete and all those that volunteered and helped her and not to forget to mention the Burgerweeshuis orphanage in Amsterdam where so many refugee orphaned children found solace did incredible things but liberty should always have been theirs and they should have been able to stay with their families. At times I thought Grete was bit reckless in terms of the situations she willingly placed herself in despite protestations from her loyal husband. Above all else saving the children is her priority and in a way she wants to release the love that she had stored in the hopes of having her own children and let it spread far and wide.
Running alongside Grete’s story is that of Helena. She lives in Koln with her two daughters, Adele and Rosa and her parents who run a hardware shop. Her husband Ansel is away fighting in the Wehrmacht which he had joined long before Hitler and National Socialism rose to power. As Hitler believes Jews are responsible for all the ills in the world Helena’s family are coming under fire along with so many others. New rules and regulations are being introduced daily and long-time friends and neighbours turning their backs on them. That’s one thing that really hit home with me that overnight people who had lived, worked, laughed and loved alongside Helena’s family could view them with disdain and want rid of them in order for Germany to thrive. Helena was a woman who held the responsibility of keeping her family safe close to her heart. She had a steel about her, an efficiency and calmness also but could be ruthless when needed. What she does in relation to her marriage with Ansel I thought was the most selfless act of all even though I could see it was breaking her heart in two. I loved the strand of the story with Ansel although I do think it seemed a bit too obvious what had happened when a certain big incident is revealed.
Kristallnacht is the turning point for Helena, her family’s business is gone and her parents have become shells of who they once were. Helena shares similar values to that of Grete and when she volunteers with the Jewish Association and starts to run the Dutch hub for the transportation of children to Britain her true talents and kindness and compassion begin to manifest themselves. She knows her daughters need safety and security yet she can’t leave her parents behind or her husband who is bound to an army and a cause that he does not believe in. It was the ultimate sacrifice to let her daughters go to Amsterdam but she knew they were in good hands with Grete and Jenni who ran the orphanage. She really was between a rock and a hard place as of she left and stayed in Amsterdam the worst could befall her parents. I wondered would the author let this continue to happen with Helena going back and forth on transports (this is where I felt things could have gotten repetitive) but everything was so well plotted that the author resolved this in a meaningful and impactful way which allowed for more strands of the story to open up.
The plot grew very intense with the outbreak of war and this occurred towards the end of the book. I did think how was the author going to continue the book through the war years and was glad when she didn’t and that the focus was primarily on the transports prewar. A brilliant and emotional picture of bravery, courage, self-sacrifice and belief was created alongside the authentic portrayal of individual children’s stories. I came to care deeply for both Grete and Helena as they both battle to prove the power of love over hate can give an endless supply of hope. All in all, The Children on the Train was an impressive story that blended historical fiction with fact to perfection. I felt like I had experienced a whirlwind of a history lesson that was interesting and engaging. Anna Staurt has honoured and given a voice to a woman many will not have heard of before and the experiences and emotions felt throughout the book will linger on long after you have reached the last page.
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