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Defying the Nazis:the Sharps' War
[Paperback - 2017]
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Category: History
Sub-category: European History
Publisher: Beacon Press | ISBN: 9780807013021 | Pages: 272
Shipping Weight: .426 | Dimensions: 5.95 x .79 x 8.97 inches

The official companion to the Ken Burns PBS film.

The little-known story of the Sharps, whose rescue missions across Europe during World War II saved the lives of countless Jews, refugees, and political dissidents—for readers of The Zookeeper’s Wife.


In 1939, the Reverend Waitstill Sharp, a young Unitarian minister, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, accepted a mission from the American Unitarian Association: they were to leave their home and young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help address the mounting refugee crisis. Seventeen ministers had been asked to undertake this mission and had declined; Rev. Sharp was the first to accept the call for volunteers in Europe.

Armed with only $40,000, Waitstill and Martha quickly learned the art of spy craft and undertook dangerous rescue and relief missions across war-torn Europe, saving refugees, political dissidents, and Jews on the eve of World War II. After narrowly avoiding the Gestapo themselves, the Sharps returned to Europe in 1940 as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee and continued their relief efforts in Vichy France.

A fascinating portrait of resistance as told through the story of one courageous couple, Defying the Nazis offers a rare glimpse at high-stakes international relief efforts during WWII and tells the remarkable true story of a couple whose faith and commitment to social justice inspired them to risk their lives to save countless others.

David Blistein is a novelist, essayist, and former advertising agency executive whose writing is the culmination of a lifelong pursuit of wisdom, transcendence, and humor. After a long career as a copywriter and advertising executive, he left the business world to travel the country in a VW van and pursue his own writing. His works-in-progress include books and blogs that present unconventional perspectives on nature, psychology, spirituality and writing. He lives with his wife Wendy O'Connell in Southern Vermont, where he balances his writing with professional consulting, serious road biking, intrepid wood-splitting, and working with children in the Vermont court system. For more information, see www.davidblistein.com.

Ken Burns, founder of Florentine Films, is a director, producer, and writer who has been making documentaries for more than twenty years. Among his productions are The Civil War (1990), Baseball (1994), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009) and Prohibition (2011). His work has won numerous prizes, including the Emmy and Peabody Awards, and has received two Academy Award nominations. He received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 2008. He lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.

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