This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the fifth book in the “Zion Covenant” series.
This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the fifth book in the “Zion Covenant” series.
The book opens in November 1939 with Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). Germans shatter store windows and the hopes of Jews who are trapped inside the Third Reich. In England, Anna Lindheim, a heroine in the previous titles in the series, prays for the safety of her sister Helen and Helen’s family. Helen and her husband, Pastor Karl Ibsen, are thrown into separate prison camps and tortured. Their son, Jamie, is put into a German youth organization, but he escapes and joins his sister, Lori, who is hiding in a church. Several other children join them later. They drive off in Pastor Karl’s car, hide in a farm and finally cross the border to safety in Danzig, Poland. Helen arrives at Anna’s doorstep in England, where she explains that Germans mistakenly let her go, and she found her way there.
A separate plot centers on Lucy, the girlfriend of SS officer Wolf, who is now living in the apartment abandoned by Anna Lindheim when she fled Vienna. Lucy tells Wolf that she is pregnant with his child, which means a promotion for him. He then reveals he has no intention of marrying her, but he will have her put in an SS maternity home and give the baby to his wife once Lucy gives birth. Lucy feels desperate, and she realizes she is simply a whore and not the bride-to-be she had envisioned. She contemplates suicide, but instead chooses to plot an escape to Danzig. She saves money to buy tickets and also helps 16-year-old Peter Wallich, his mother and his siblings escape with her. Hitler stops them at the train station to have his photo taken with Peter and the baby. The photo, published in the newspaper, helps them avoid being checked at the border, and they are allowed to go into Danzig.
Pastor Karl leads his fellow prisoners to faith in Jesus. When put in isolation, he is kept sane through his faith and prayers. His children and their friends pray. Lucy contemplates suicide, but her Catholic faith prevents her from carrying it out. She prays as she struggles and eventually escapes. Alfie, Lori’s friend with a low IQ, has a childlike faith and talks of an angel who guides him in different circumstances.
Hitler believes that Aryans are the superior race and plans to use immoral sex with prostitutes to increase the Aryan population. Hitler also uses torture to get the clergy to accept the Nazi socialist doctrine, which states that Jews are subhuman and the Germans are the hand of God being used to punish evil Jews. Pastor Karl confronts these false doctrines with truths from Scripture. Orde leads a band of Jewish followers. Muslims fight the Jews, but nothing is discussed about their beliefs.
Hitler and his men use lies and brutal force to get people to obey them. Pastor Karl is a leader for the men in prison, and his teachings are a guide for his children and their friends. Otto is a German who tries to help Peter and his family. They listen to him as he gives them hope about escaping. The Jews follow Orde, a masterful military strategist, because of his example and strong leadership.
During Kristallnacht, the Germans burn synagogues, destroy Jewish storefronts, loot the stores and shout obscenities at Jews. German soldiers drag Jews into the streets, beat them and arrest Jews and Jewish sympathizers. Germans beat and shoot some prisoners and herd them like cattle into train cars, where they soil their clothes due to a lack of bathrooms.
Orde lets the people see a bloody sheet covering two slain bodies. His band of Jews attacks and kills Muslims and leave notes on the dead bodies for other Muslims to find and identify. Orde’s car is bombed, but he escapes.
To complete their escape, Lucy and Peter must get rid of an SS officer. Peter makes him strip, tosses the uniform out the window and then shoves him out naked. Later, the man streaks across the field near the Danzig border, unknowingly providing a distraction that helps Lori and her friends escape. Pastor Karl is forced to witness his friends being hung.
In one scene, Lori’s Jewish friend Jacob realizes she must be having her period, so he makes her tea and lets her rest. He suppresses his physical desire for her in order to stay focused on the need to survive. Lucy continues to sleep with Wolf until the time of her escape in order to keep him from placing her in a maternity home where she’ll be under guard. Wolf is supposed to put Lucy away immediately, but she entices him so that he will continue to desire to have sex with her. During Peter’s escape, depictions are given of Germans forcing Jews to drop their pants to see if they are circumcised.
This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
