Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others

I couldn't put this book down. None of us can fathom what these people went through during and after the Holocaust. Getting an inside glimpse of what was going through their minds, through such personal letters, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming...and so very inspirational. Everyone should read this book.

When all is said and done, the threads of our lives are wrapped in choices and the context in which they must be made. In blending a story of Europe at the start of WWII, Joanie Schirm achieves the delicate balance of vividly engaging the accelerating consequences of both choice and context. With the first-hand knowledge gained from 400 letters from 78 different engaged writers, Joanie has successfully conveyed the tone, the tenor and the fragile assumptions of the men and women struggling to redefine their lives when the very ground under their feet has shifted. These letters written and received by her late Czech father were unknown to her until after his death: all the while sitting in plain-view, housed in a family-familiar Chinese red lacquered box. Her book is a gift. One the eve of World War II in Czechoslovakia, given the times, given the circumstances, it begs the modern day question: what would you do? The answer may not come as easy as you may think. Based on their own words, Adventurerers profiles the paths of eight men and women and details the fears, hopes, comfort and advice they shared with one another, as relevant today as it was then. Adventurerers is a recommended pathfinder tool for any passionate and engaged world-citizen. Instructive lessons for any generation which will linger long after the pages of the book have been closed.