Safe Passage
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Gala opera evenings. Sudden wealth and fame. Dangerous undercover missions into the heart of Nazi Germany. Standing up to the perils of the Blitz. No one would have predicted such glamorous and daring lives for Ida and Louise Cook—two decidedly ordinary Englishwomen who came of age between the wars and seemed destined never to stray from their quiet London suburb and comfortable civil service jobs. But in 1923 a chance hearing of an aria from Madame Butterfly sparked a passion in the sisters that became a vehicle for both their greatest happiness and the rescue of dozens of Jews facing persecution and death.
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Safe Passage is one of the most unusual and inspiring accounts to come out of the cataclysm of World War II. First published in 1950, Ida's memoir of the adventures she and Louise shared remains as fresh, vital and entertaining as the woman who wrote it. The Cook sisters' zest for life and genuine "goodness" shines through every page and explains why the leading opera singers of their day befriended and loved them. Even when Ida began to earn thousands as a successful romance novelist, the sisters never departed from their homespun virtues of thrift, hard work, self-sacrifice and unwavering moral conviction. They sewed their own clothes, traveled third class, bought the cheapest tickets during opera season and directed every spare resource, as well as their own considerable courage and ingenuity, toward saving as many people as they could from Hitler's death camps.
Uplifting and utterly charming, Safe Passage is moving testimony to all that can be achieved when conscience and compassion are applied to a collapsing world.
Liked Safe Passage? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Safe Passage. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Girl from Station X: My Mother's Unknown Life Shares nonfiction, World War II, memoir -
Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile, and Love Reclaimed Shares nonfiction, memoir, World War II -
Three Came Home Shares memoir, World War II, nonfiction -
London War Notes, 1939-1945 Shares nonfiction, World War II, history
“People who read Safe Passage tend to reach for these next.”
“If you want more of the same (history), start with these.”
“If it was the World War II that hooked you, try one of these.”
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On Hitler's Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood
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Breaking the Code: A Father's Secret, a Daughter's Journey, and the Question That Changed Everything
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Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
- Queen of the Bremen: The True Story of an American Child Trapped in Germany During World War II
