Safe Passage: The Remarkable True Story of Two Sisters Who Rescued Jews from the Nazis [Paperback]

Ida Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2008

Gala opera evenings. Sudden wealth and fame. Dangerous undercover missions into the heart of Nazi Germany. Standing up to the perils of the Blitz. No one would have predicted such glamorous and daring lives for Ida and Louise Cook—two decidedly ordinary Englishwomen who came of age between the wars and seemed destined never to stray from their quiet London suburb and comfortable civil service jobs. But in 1923 a chance hearing of an aria from Madame Butterfly sparked a passion in the sisters that became a vehicle for both their greatest happiness and the rescue of dozens of Jews facing persecution and death.

Safe Passage is one of the most unusual and inspiring accounts to come out of the cataclysm of World War II. First published in 1950, Ida's memoir of the adventures she and Louise shared remains as fresh, vital and entertaining as the woman who wrote it. The Cook sisters' zest for life and genuine "goodness" shines through every page and explains why the leading opera singers of their day befriended and loved them. Even when Ida began to earn thousands as a successful romance novelist, the sisters never departed from their homespun virtues of thrift, hard work, self-sacrifice and unwavering moral conviction. They sewed their own clothes, traveled third class, bought the cheapest tickets during opera season and directed every spare resource, as well as their own considerable courage and ingenuity, toward saving as many people as they could from Hitler's death camps.

Uplifting and utterly charming, Safe Passage is moving testimony to all that can be achieved when conscience and compassion are applied to a collapsing world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Under the pseudonym Mary Burchell, UK novelist Cook (1904-1986) wrote more than 100 novels in addition to this enchanting memoir, first published in 1950 as We Followed Our Stars. This reprint of the updated 1976 version features a new foreword by scholar Anne Sebba, and the charming, harrowing tale of the Cook sisters, Ida and Louise, whose holiday from their suburban London home to the United States and Western Europe turns from a music lover's grand tour into an international mission to save Jews from the Nazis. Passionate music fans, the Cook sisters' first foray into the world brought them into contact not just with operatic luminaries but the harsh realities of a world on the brink. With ingenuity, boundless optimism and the will to risk their lives, the Cook sisters smuggle jewels to fund the release of Jews about to be shipped to concentration camps and set up networks of satellite families for displaced Jews in safe nations. Pocked with heart-stopping moments-close calls and reunited families rank high-this lovingly written true story shines a light through one of humanity's darkest chapters.
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The memoir of Ida Cook, author of 120 books over five decades, was first published overseas in 1950 and is now available for the first time in the U.S. Ida and her sister, Louise, created forged documents and traveled the country to raise money. They bought a London flat for refugees to live in, sewed their own clothes, and traveled third class, working to save as many people as possible from Hitler’s death camps. Cook writes that opera shored up their belief “that there was another world to which we would be able to return one day.” She viewed  the music as something that counterbalanced their unhappiness at the cruelty they were forced to witness. In the foreword, Anne Sebba writes that the real power of the book is the transformative nature of music, especially the high drama of operatic music. The two spinsters knew that in the presence of their prima donna heroines, they could assume different personae themselves. After World War II, the sisters settled back into the family home in London. In 1965 they were declared Righteous Among the Nations  in recognition of their work in rescuing Jews from Germany and Austria during the Nazi regime. A testament to fortitude and courage. --George Cohen

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin; Original edition (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373892012
• ISBN-13: 978-0373892013
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must have book, October 9, 2009

By 

George Dansker "rossini2" (New Orleans, La United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Safe Passage: The Remarkable True Story of Two Sisters Who Rescued Jews from the Nazis (Paperback)

I love this book. I am savoring every word, every phrase. Ida Cook and her sister Louise were truly saints of our time and the book, as written by Ida, is a gem.

The detail, the humanity, the amazing rescue work that they did --- everything is recounted in a lovely writing style.

I truly recommend this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 83 pages into the book and think it is lovely, November 19, 2008

By 

it (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Safe Passage: The Remarkable True Story of Two Sisters Who Rescued Jews from the Nazis (Paperback)

Cook's language and turns of phrases are generous and succinct at once. She creates vivid images. I am savoring this book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars vissi d'amore, November 22, 2009

By 

Steve Perlowski (Des Moines, IA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Safe Passage: The Remarkable True Story of Two Sisters Who Rescued Jews from the Nazis (Paperback)

This book combines a significant bit of history with wonderful writing. It deserves a wide readership, but for those of us who have a specific interest in opera, especially opera's past (e.g., Ponselle, Farrar, Pinza, etc.) and/or were born before rock"n" roll (i.e., before 1951) it is a must read.

The story is gritty; the prose is lilting; and the pathos is heartrending. If this book doesn't bring tears of joy and sadness to your eyes then courage, and poignance, and tragedy, and beauty, and the dogged spirit of human determination and goodness don't exist in this world.

Approximately one-third of the book documents, in perfectly pitched prose, the role that the Cook sisters played in rescuing refugees, mostly Jews, from Europe prior to the outbreak of war in 1939. [In 1965 the two opera-loving Brits were awarded the honor of Righteous Among the Nations from the Yad Vashem for the lives they saved.] It seems almost an understatement to say, paraphrasing Albert Camus, that in the midst of winter these two sisters were an invincible summer.