Saving Elli

(Paperback)

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Description

Gita, a young Jewish woman, must flee Nazi-occupied Holland when she is about to be sent to a forced labour camp. There is no way she can take her two children, one goes to family and 14-month-old Elli is taken in by a young Dutch resistance couple, Frits and Jo.

They hide Elli in their house for two years in a cavity between the upper and lower floors of their apartment. They can only allow her out when the streets are largely deserted or when they are sure that there will be no unwanted visitors.

Frits's resistance activities: sabotaging Luftwaffe aircraft at the Fokker factory; derailing German military transport and munitions trains; nighttime attacks on German soldiers and collaborators; guiding escaping Jews to freedom; and forging identity documents; bring him to the attention of the Nazis and their apartment is raided several times.

After two years hiding Elli, Frits and Jo are forced to make the heartbreaking decision to give up Elli for her own safety. It will be forty years until Elli is reunited with the family.

This story resonates in so many ways: the plight of having to leave your children behind; the goodness and braveness of Frits and Jo; a young child being hidden for two years; the terrible plights of Abraham and Gita in the camps; the terror that Frits and Jo lived through, and the final ending when the family is reunited with Elli.

Author Bio

Doug Gold has had a long and successful media career. With a business partner, he set up the More FM radio network and, later, was a founding partner of NRS Media, an international media company with offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto and Sydney. He has won numerous broadcasting awards and consulted to major media networks globally. He lives in Wellington with his wife, Anemarie.