Countess Andrée Eugénie Adrienne de Jongh, called Dédée and Postman, was a member of the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War. She organised and led the Comet Line to assist Allied soldiers and airmen to escape from Nazi-occupied Belgium. The airmen were survivors of military airplanes shot down over Belgium or other European countries. Between August 1941 and December 1942, she escorted 118 people, including more than 80 airmen, from Belgium to neutral Spain from where they were transported to the United Kingdom. Arrested by the Nazis in January 1943, she was incarcerated for the remainder of World War II. After the war, she worked in leper hospitals in Africa.
During World War II, some individuals and groups helped Jews and others escape the Holocaust conducted by Nazi Germany.
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited among Yishuv Jews from Mandatory Palestine and commanded by Anglo-Jewish officers. It served in the latter stages of the Italian Campaign, and was disbanded in 1946.
Number the Stars is a work of historical fiction by the American author Lois Lowry about the escape of a family of Jews from Copenhagen, Denmark, during World War II.
Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelling", for recurring themes such as the triumph of an outsider or survival, for characters' relationships with nature, and for vivid settings such as the Cornish coast or World War I. Morpurgo became the third Children's Laureate, from 2003 to 2005, and he is also the current President of BookTrust, the UK's largest children's reading charity.
In the decades since the Holocaust, some national governments, international bodies and world leaders have been criticized for their failure to take appropriate action to save the millions of European Jews, Roma, and other victims of the Holocaust. Critics say that such intervention, particularly by the Allied governments, might have saved substantial numbers of people and could have been accomplished without the diversion of significant resources from the war effort.
The Egmont Group is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing, but has over the years evolved to comprise mass media generally.
Private Peaceful is a novel for older children by British author Michael Morpurgo first published in 2003. It is about a fictional young soldier called Thomas "Tommo" Peaceful, who is looking back on his life so far and his going to war. The story focusses on the harsh realities of English rural life and warfare, and highlights the British Army's practice of executing its own soldiers during the First World War. Morpurgo was inspired to write the novel after learning about the around 300 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were shot for crimes like desertion and cowardice. The novel helped further the campaign to grant posthumous pardons to the men, which were agreed and implemented by the UK Government in 2006.
Père Marie-Benoît was born Pierre Péteul. As a Capuchin Franciscan friar he helped smuggle approximately 4,000 Jews into safety from Nazi-occupied Southern France. On 1 December 1966, he was honored with the Medal of the Righteous among the Nations for his courage and self-sacrifice. His actions to save Jews during the Holocaust were the reason for his epithetFather of the Jews.
Kensuke's Kingdom is a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman. It was first published in 1999 by Egmont UK. Since then, it has been released by various other publishers, such as Scholastic.
War Horse is a British war novel by Michael Morpurgo. It was first published in Great Britain by Kaye & Ward in 1982. The story recounts the experiences of Joey, a horse bought by the Army for service in World War I in France and the attempts of 15-year-old Albert, his previous owner, to bring him safely home. It formed the basis of both an award-winning play (2007) and an acclaimed film adaptation (2011) by Steven Spielberg. The novel is often considered one of Morpurgo's best works, and its success spawned a sequel titled Farm Boy, which was published in October 1997.
The Comet Line was a Resistance organization in occupied Belgium and France in the Second World War. The Comet Line helped Allied soldiers and airmen shot down over occupied Belgium evade capture by Germans and return to Great Britain. The Comet Line began in Brussels where the airmen were fed, clothed, given false identity papers, and hidden in attics, cellars, and people's homes. A network of volunteers then escorted them south through occupied France into neutral Spain and home via British-controlled Gibraltar. The motto of the Comet Line was "Pugna Quin Percutias", which means "fight without arms", as the organization did not undertake armed or violent resistance to the German occupation.
Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. She was the youngest daughter of Charles I, the last Emperor of Austria, and his wife, Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma.
War Horse is a 2011 war film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg. Its screenplay, written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, is based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel War Horse and its 2007 stage adaptation.
Dutch-Paris escape line was a resistance network during World War II with ties to the Dutch, Belgian and French Resistance. Their main mission was to rescue people from the Nazis by hiding them or taking them to neutral countries. They also served as a clandestine courier service. In 1978 Yad Vashem recognized Dutch-Paris's illegal work of rescuing Jews by honoring the line's leader, Jean Weidner as Righteous Among the Nations on behalf of the entire network.
World War II in the Basque Country refers to the period extending from 1940 to 1945. It affected the French Basque Country, but also bordering areas across the Pyrenees on account of the instability following the end of the Spanish Civil War, and the friendly ties between Germany, Vichy France, and the triumphant Spanish military dictatorship.
Shahar Kober is an Israeli illustrator, art director and lecturer. He lives in Kiryat Tivon, Israel.
In German military history, Bandenbekämpfung, also referred to as Nazi security warfare during World War II, refers to the concept and military doctrine of countering resistance or insurrection in the rear area during wartime through extreme brutality. The doctrine provided a rationale for disregarding the established laws of war and for targeting of any number of groups, from armed guerrillas to the civilian population, as "bandits" or "members of gangs". As applied by the German Empire and later by Nazi Germany, it became instrumental in the mass crimes against humanity committed by the two regimes, including the Herero and Namaqua genocide and the Holocaust.
Elvire De Greef,, code name Tante Go or Auntie Go, was a member of the Comet Escape Line in World War II. From her house in Anglet in southwestern France, near the border with Spain, she led efforts by the Comet Line in the Basque country to exfiltrate people from occupied Belgium through France to Spain, especially Allied airmen whose aircraft had been shot down by Nazi Germany. Once across the border in neutral Spain the escapees were transported to the United Kingdom. De Greef's husband and two teenage children also worked with the Comet line.
Waiting for Anya is a 2020 historical war drama film co-written and directed by Ben Cookson. It is a film adaptation of the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Morpurgo.
