A Different Kind of Courage, A by Gretel Wachtel
A Different Kind of Courage is the spellbinding account by an attractive and feisty young woman who witnessed personally Hitler's racist spite at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and had to endure the shock of the disappearance of her best friend and her family during Kristallnact, the night of atrocities against the Jews. She allied herself to the German resistance fighters, passing on secrets learnt from her work on the Enigma decoding machines, and she received all the conflicting messages coming in on the day of the attempted assassination of Hitler in 1944 by Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, many of whom she knew personally. Gretel stayed in Hamburg throughout the war, suffering the constant bombing of the city by the Allies, helping the local Catholic priest to protect those being hunted by the SS, and was almost exposed by a 'house spy', when hiding her Jewish doctor in the coal cellar of her own house. Arrested finally by the Gestapo in 1945 and taken to an internment camp, she was liberated by the British Army. When the Allies march towards Hamburg, the camp is dissolved and Gretel returns home. She falls in love with a handsome British officer, living life as best as she can in the ruins of Hamburg, until he asks her to come to England and marry him. Destined to be a classic in the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank, A Different Kind of Courage is a story of indomitable spirit and determination that will inspire and enthrall.
"A very well-written, fast-moving book.. [it] has all the ingredients for a Hollywood blockbuster" Tribune
Gretel Wachtel was born in Germany 1915 and was 24 years old when the Second World War broke out. She moved to England in 1945, where she remained until her death in 2006. Claudia Strachan was born in Germany and moved to England in 1993. After meeting Gretel, who shared with her stories about her time in Hamburg during the Second World War, she spent the next nine years researching the historical background of Gretel's story.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781845965105 |
| ISBN 10 | 1845965108 |
| Title | A Different Kind of Courage, A |
| Author | Gretel Wachtel |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2009-08-06 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |