Daren
In 1956 Richard Pape published Boldness be my Friend, a memoir of his time as a POW and escaped POW in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II. It was a complex explanation of his time with many people who aided him, and much went on unknown to him with those people after he has passed them by. For others he was not aware of their identity.
And so to this book - published in 1959, three years later - Pape's goal was to seek out information about the many people who helped him, visit hose who were still alive, or the families of those who were not and to share a little about their histories. There are many photographs throughout the book - some of the war years some of his visits to these people post-war.
There are many interesting stories about people here, although there are some where Pape spread the goodness on a bit thick. In his travels he revisited the UK, Netherlands and Germany, but also Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
Of most interest to me was his visit to Christchurch, NZ where he met the man he swapped identity with in order to confuse the Gestapo - they both went on to swap identities again with other prisoners and make a real tangled web for the Gestapo to try and unravel. Of course this is not a travel book, so there was little about his journeying, but is all about the people.
Pape gives an outline of his previous story to link the narratives of the people, so it can be read standa alone, but really it would be best read shortly after the first book (as opposed to around 5 years after, as I did!)
An interesting book, 3 stars.
In 1956 Richard Pape published Boldness be my Friend, a memoir of his time as a POW and escaped POW in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II. It was a complex explanation of his time with many people who aided him, and much went on unknown to him with those people after he has passed them by. For others he was not aware of their identity.
And so to this book - published in 1959, three years later - Pape's goal was to seek out information about the many people who helped him, visit hose who were still alive, or the families of those who were not and to share a little about their histories. There are many photographs throughout the book - some of the war years some of his visits to these people post-war.
There are many interesting stories about people here, although there are some where Pape spread the goodness on a bit thick. In his travels he revisited the UK, Netherlands and Germany, but also Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
Of most interest to me was his visit to Christchurch, NZ where he met the man he swapped identity with in order to confuse the Gestapo - they both went on to swap identities again with other prisoners and make a real tangled web for the Gestapo to try and unravel. Of course this is not a travel book, so there was little about his journeying, but is all about the people.
Pape gives an outline of his previous story to link the narratives of the people, so it can be read standa alone, but really it would be best read shortly after the first book (as opposed to around 5 years after, as I did!)
An interesting book, 3 stars.