Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I found it touching and in also overwhelming. I am a holocaust survivor from Vienna. I was 9 years old and we had reached Brussels. My mother received a visa as a housekeeper but 50 pounds were needed for me to go with her. Someone at the British Consulate paid so I could go. We arrived in England 3 weeks before the war started. The book brought bad but also wonderful memories back.The book was so immediate for me. They both are real true heroines and Christians. I wish I had known them.
If you wish to have a true picture of that time and place read this outstanding book.

This book is a tremendous true story that is very inspiring. The two sisters Ida and Louise model the kind of life that is full of adventure, love of what is great and grand, and love for their human kind.

Fascinating book, but more meaningful if you still remember the opera stars of yestertear.
The fact that these two women saved the lives of so many people would be of interest to everyone who is a student of the
Holocaust.

I found this book detailed with what was most important to these two girls/women prior to the war, which was their great interest in opera and coming to America to see great opera stars preform. Which then lead to their assisting others in order to save them from the holocaust. They were both very determined ladies.