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Rosa's Miracle Mouse: The True Story of a WWII Undercover Teenager
Just one year older than Nazi death-camp victim Anne Frank, Agnes Daluge (born Agnesa Lackovic) came to Germany in 1939 in such poor health that physicians predicted she would soon die. Having suffered several life-threatening illnesses and infections, due to impoverished living conditions in her native Slovakia, Agnes took refuge at the age of 11 in the home of her affluent paternal aunt, Rosa Schneider. There the severely undernourished Agnes was given the hardy diet and medical care she needed to regain her health and start compensating for years of slowed growth. But her new-found sense of well-being didn't last long, as she began finding herself swept up in her aunt's secret the exceedingly dangerous activities of the Munich underground forces. In the course of just three years, the undersized, but highly intelligent girl was compelled by her aunt to learn four languages -- a capability that would aid Agnes in saving HUNDREDS of lives during World War II. Her valiant efforts and ingenuity in aiding the Allies to execute several military operations against Germany and in rescuing scores of American, English, and French soldiers ultimately earned her American citizenship after the war. She has resided in the U.S. since 1948 -- a war heroine and national treasure who our government has, until now, prevented from telling her miraculous story of unflagging courage in the face of torture and death!
227 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 6, 2020
This is a compelling of the courage and danger Agnes Lackovic and her aunt Rosa encountered while working for the underground in Germany during WWII. It is fortunately not greatly diminished by the lack of literary skill in the telling.
May 30, 2017
Had the author and her husband at book club. Fascinating and frightening to hear their story first hand.
April 21, 2023
Amazing story! Got to see her daughter present about her mom’s story today
October 3, 2023
Really good, Agnes was very brave and smart! God bless her and people like her who helped save some many lives during WW 2!
May 30, 2016
Some amazing things about this book:
1) It turns out that I live just down the street from the book's author, who died in 2007. Her husband still lives there.
2) I wouldn't have found out about the book or Agnes Daluge if it weren't for a neighbor across the street from us walking her dog past Agnes's house, where she engaged Agnes in conversation and found out about the book and her whole incredible life.
3) For a book I hadn't heard of before and had never seen any promotion for, it's an INCREDIBLE STORY.
Agnes is a young, small-for-her-age Slovak who leaves her tiny poor town to go live with her aunt in Munich. It turns out that her aunt has big plans for her, because her aunt is working with the OSS trying to smuggle Jews from Germany just after Hitler came to power. Since her aunt perceives that Agnes is extremely bright, she has her tutored in four languages, German, English, French, and Italian, until she is as fluent as a native speaker in all of them, then she uses Agnes as a secret agent, who meets other secret agents in the chain to help smuggle Jews--and shot-down American soldiers and Allied troops--to her aunt's safe house (a large, underground room not visible from the ground).
Agnes is barely a teenager when she memorizes long lines of code to communicate with other agents in the underground. Since these agents never expect their unknown contact to be a small girl, Agnes puts a suffix of KID on all her messages, so when she speaks the secret code, they do a double-take and realize what the KID suffix stands for. She communicates many messages in codes even she doesn't understand. She smiles as she says various words or sings some of the words of the message as if she's aimlessly singing a familiar folk tune. The contacts, who are alerted to the code signals, then figure out the message and transfer it to the next contact. All this happens in public, in full view of whatever Nazi group happens to be patrolling the streets.
The most amazing part, to me, was that she learned to play the accordion and played with a group in several venues across Germany, all the time giving out secret signals to whoever the contact in the audience was by smiling at certain words in the lyrics so that the contacts would know that, for example, the fourth word in the libretto after she smiled was the one encoding the critical message.
Since she was fluent in four languages, she could translate for others in the safe house who came from different countries, so they all knew what was going on.
The book is a remarkably absorbing narrative. I read it in two sittings. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in secret agents, the Holocaust, World War II, or just a great story. The only dull part of this book is the last 40 pages or so, which are just like a letter to family members or a very long epilogue.
The book is available on Amazon.
1) It turns out that I live just down the street from the book's author, who died in 2007. Her husband still lives there.
2) I wouldn't have found out about the book or Agnes Daluge if it weren't for a neighbor across the street from us walking her dog past Agnes's house, where she engaged Agnes in conversation and found out about the book and her whole incredible life.
3) For a book I hadn't heard of before and had never seen any promotion for, it's an INCREDIBLE STORY.
Agnes is a young, small-for-her-age Slovak who leaves her tiny poor town to go live with her aunt in Munich. It turns out that her aunt has big plans for her, because her aunt is working with the OSS trying to smuggle Jews from Germany just after Hitler came to power. Since her aunt perceives that Agnes is extremely bright, she has her tutored in four languages, German, English, French, and Italian, until she is as fluent as a native speaker in all of them, then she uses Agnes as a secret agent, who meets other secret agents in the chain to help smuggle Jews--and shot-down American soldiers and Allied troops--to her aunt's safe house (a large, underground room not visible from the ground).
Agnes is barely a teenager when she memorizes long lines of code to communicate with other agents in the underground. Since these agents never expect their unknown contact to be a small girl, Agnes puts a suffix of KID on all her messages, so when she speaks the secret code, they do a double-take and realize what the KID suffix stands for. She communicates many messages in codes even she doesn't understand. She smiles as she says various words or sings some of the words of the message as if she's aimlessly singing a familiar folk tune. The contacts, who are alerted to the code signals, then figure out the message and transfer it to the next contact. All this happens in public, in full view of whatever Nazi group happens to be patrolling the streets.
The most amazing part, to me, was that she learned to play the accordion and played with a group in several venues across Germany, all the time giving out secret signals to whoever the contact in the audience was by smiling at certain words in the lyrics so that the contacts would know that, for example, the fourth word in the libretto after she smiled was the one encoding the critical message.
Since she was fluent in four languages, she could translate for others in the safe house who came from different countries, so they all knew what was going on.
The book is a remarkably absorbing narrative. I read it in two sittings. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in secret agents, the Holocaust, World War II, or just a great story. The only dull part of this book is the last 40 pages or so, which are just like a letter to family members or a very long epilogue.
The book is available on Amazon.
May 31, 2012
The story told is amazing. It's amazing that a young person can do what she did and have the courage to do what she did. But the story starts out VERY slowly. The early part of the book reads like it was written for her family with more history than the fascinating part of the story needs. My daughters had the great fortune to meet the author before she died and to be able to talk with her about her story. Amazing woman!
August 16, 2010
This is an incredible story, about a smart Slovak girl who learns a bunch of languages and helps Jews escape during WW2. Very interesting to read about some of the clever ways that happened. The writing is simple, and there are a lot of typos, but it is worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews