I just reviewed we had to save them by Elle van Rijn and here is my review.
It's 1941 in Amsterdam. Betty, a young nursery teacher and a jew, works in a nursery helping jewish parents with childcare so they can go to work. Being able to bring some joy to these little children's lives during a devastating time, is what keeps Betty going every day.
Then the Nazis start taking the kids away.
Now Betty's little nursery is part of a deportation center for little children and their families. Soon enough they get wind of what is happening to these children as they are taken away on those trains.
The Germans do not care about these kids and will shoot to kill anyone who stands in their way. That doesn't stop Betty and the ladies she works with setting up a network to smuggle as many kids out right under the Nazis noses. What they are doing is dangerous and if they are caught, it will earn them a one way ticket to Auschwitz but for Betty, the risk is worth her life.
This book was so gut wrenching I had to put it down a few times just to settle the tears down. I love that the book was based on real people and the things they did, at the risk of their own lives, to save kids, truly inspiring. Betty was just a teen when she went to work for the nursery and she never backed down from the atrocities of what was going on around her.
I loved that this book wasn't set in Germany as a WW2 novel but Amsterdam and the fact it was set in a nursery was really refreshing. This novel checked every single box for me and I loved watching Betty grapple with the realities of her life and knowing her family was ripped apart all because of their religion must have been devastating.
If you love the kind of book with bravery, selflessness and will make you blubber like a baby, this is the book for you. Be prepared that it is a really heavy topic dealing with the kids, but it really is worth the read. Well paced and a solid 5 stars! The book taught me something about the war that I didn't know and I am reminded that there were so many unsung heroes in that dark time in our history and they never gave up on what was right.
Thank you netgalley and bookouture for bringing this beautiful masterpiece to me in exchange for my honest review.
