Description
The unforgettable story of two unsung heroes of World War II: the sisters Janny and Lien Brilleslijper, who joined the Dutch Resistance, helped save dozens of lives, were captured by the Nazis, and ultimately survived the Holocaust.
Eight months after Germany’s invasion of Poland, the Nazis rolled into the Netherlands, expanding their reign of brutality to the Dutch. By the winter of 1943, resistance was growing. Among those fighting their brutal Nazi occupiers were two Jewish sisters, Janny and Lien Brilleslijper, from Amsterdam. Risking arrest and death, the sisters helped save others, sheltering them in a clandestine safehouse in the woods which they called “The High Nest.”
This secret refuge became one of the most important Jewish safehouses in the country, serving as a hiding place and underground center for resistance partisans as well as artists condemned by Hitler. From the High Nest, an underground web of artists emerged, giving hope and light to those living in terror in the Netherlands as they began to restore the dazzling pre-war life of Amsterdam and The Hague.
When the house and its occupants were eventually betrayed, the most terrifying time of the sisters' lives began. As Allied troops closed in, the Brilleslijper family were rushed onto the last train to Auschwitz, along with Anne Frank and her family. The journey brought Janny and Lien close to Anne and her older sister Margot. The days ahead tested the sisters beyond human imagination as they were stripped of everything but their courage, their resilience, and their love for each other.
Based on meticulous research and unprecedented access to the Brilleslijpers’ personal archives of memoirs and photos, 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.
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