In “Suzanne’s Children,” Anne Nelson tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose courage and sacrifice saved the lives of many Jewish children in Nazi Paris. Suzanne Spaak, born in a privileged Catholic family and married (unhappily) into the leading Belgian political family, through her friendship with a Polish Jewish exile, became involved in the resistance to the German occupiers and their French collaborators. With total disregard for her own safety, she raised money, established safe havens for Jewish children left behind when their parents were deported, organized their escape from Paris to the countryside and helped Jewish groups in their attempt to alert the world about the Holocaust. She did not hesitate to enlist the help of her own teenage daughter and younger son in dangerous missions. She believed that, in the face of evil, “ something must be done”.
In 1944 she was arrested, possibly tortured, and died in Fresnes prison. After the war, she was almost forgotten (in part thanks to her husband’s actions) until 1985, when she was honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” at Yad Vashem.
Anne Nelson’s deeply researched book brings her back to life, together with other remarkable people who worked with her or moved in her circle of friends. What made her so special was that, when confronted with colossal injustice and cruelty, she did not look the other way, but she stood up for what she believed was morally right. As Ann Nelson points out in the last paragraph of the book “Suzanne Spaak was capable of seeing and serving the “alien other” because, in her clear gaze, no fellow human was alien, or other”.
Suzanne's Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris
reviewed for HBVFWW by Elda Stifani

Anne Nelson will be a Participating Writer for Hobart Festival of Women Writers 2018. www.hobartfestivalofwomenwriters.blog for Spotlights on all of HBVFWW writers.