The heroic story of Suzanne Spaak, who risked everything and gave her life to save hundreds of Jewish children from deportation from Nazi-occupied Paris to Auschwitz is one of many untold stories of the Holocaust. This week’s episode of Just the Right Book welcomes author Anne Nelson who tells Spaak’s story in her latest book, Suzanne’s Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris.
The Yale University alum consults with many of the leading US foundations including Gates, Rockefeller, and Carnegie on international media conflict and human rights, was a war correspondent in Latin America and reported from Eastern Europe and Asia for the New York Times, LA Times, BBC, NPR, and PBS.
Nelson has now set her considerable wide-ranging skills on a story of extraordinary courage in the face of evil. She has resurrected from obscurity the life of Suzanne Spaak, a wealthy Brussels-born woman who used her prominent status in Nazi-occupied Paris to rescue, shelter, and support Jewish children that were orphaned or left behind after their parents were deported to the concentration camps of Europe. Roxanne says, “In Miss Nelson’s hand this story of courage is a page-turner filled with fascinating detailed research on the state of terror that existed in Nazi-occupied Paris, the espionage, and the extraordinary bravery of some and the astounding complicity with evil of many.”
Also in this episode, some fantastic book recommendations from co-founder and president of The Book Report Network, Carol Fitzgerald.
Suzanne’s Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris by Anne Nelson
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy
Manhattan Beach (Audio) by Jennifer Egan, Heather Lind (Read by), Vincent Piazza (Read by)
The Dirty Book Club by Lisi Harrison
Need to Know by Karen Cleveland
Disclaimer by Renee Knight
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
A Trace of Footprints by Ruth Wolff
