(See all my Book Reviews and Author Interviews) – Authors Tim Heath (https://www.timheathbooks.com), Virginia Wells, and Herti Bryan will publish the book “Resistance Heroines in Nazi and Russian Occupied Austria” on May 31, 2021. Mr. Heath has published four WWII history books.
I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains a few mature situations. The story is set in wartime and postwar Austria. The book primarily follows the life of Herti Juliana Bryan.
Herti was born Herti Krouse on February 21 1929 in Austria. By the time the Germans occupied her country, she was nine years old. Rather than seen as conquerors, the Austrians welcomed the Germans into their country. After the Nazis arrived, Herti noticed that a few schoolmates and neighbors began to disappear. Taken by the Gestapo.
She stood up as best she could against the Nazis. Her father died of natural causes in January 1940. She, her mother, and siblings struggled to survive as the war came closer and closer to their home. The Russians advanced into Austria in 1945. Herti, at 16, left home and headed on her own towards the British lines. She became an interpreter for the British and later moved to the UK.
The book does not tell of only Herti. The stories of other young Austrian girls are also included. How they defied the Germans. How they scavenged in the bombed ruins of Austria for food. Their treatment by both the German and Russian soldiers.
I enjoyed the 6+ hours I spent reading this 216-page WWII history. I read and reviewed the book Hitler’s Housewives: German Women on the Home Front by Tim Heath about this time last year. I found it and this book very interesting. Both gave a different outlook on the war. So many books about women in WWII focus on those that served the Allies with the SOE or at Bletchley Park as Wrens. I like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4 out of 5.
You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).
My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).
If you have an interest in the WWII era of history, you may find these three pages of interest.
- The “World War II Resources” page is a constantly growing collection of more than 520 links to museums, memorials, websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other sources with information on the World War II-era in history.
- The “World War II Timeline” page expands almost daily and shows events leading up to WWII, as well as during the war. Events are broken down into the Pacific and European Theaters by date.
- The About WWII page is a collection of links to posts that I have made over the years that are relevant to WWII.
John's Notes 