The sisters of auschwitz

EIGHT MONTHS AFTER GERMANY'S INVASION OF POLAND. the Nazis roll into the Netherlands, expanding their reign of brutality to the Dutch. But by the winter of 1943, resis-tance is growing. Among those fighting their brutal Nazi occupiers are two Jewish sisters, Janny and Lien Brilleslijper, from Amsterdam. Risking arrest and death, the sisters help save others, sheltering them in the woods in a clandestine safe house, a house they cali the “High Nest.” This secret place would become one of the most important refuges in the country, serv-ing as a hiding place and underground center for resistance partisans as well as artists con-demned by Hitler. From the High Nest, an underground web of artists arises, giving hope and light to those living in terror in Holland as they begin to restore the dazzling prewar life of Amsterdam and The Hague. When the house and its occupants are eventually betrayed, the most terrifying time of the sisters’ lives begins. As Allied troops cióse in, the Brilleslijper family is rushed onto the last train to Auschwitz, along with Anne Frank and her family. The days ahead will test the sisters beyond human imagination as they are stripped of everything but their courage, resilience, and love for each other. Based on meticulous research and unprecedented access to the Brilleslijpers’ personal archives of memoirs and photographs, The Sisters of Auschwitz is a long-overdue homage to two young women’s heroism and moral bravery—and a reminder of the power each of us has to change the world.