As a diplomat, my father had always been informed of world events, often before they made media headlines.  When he retired, he turned his attention to the history that had shaped the world of his generation.  He was interested in how religion, culture, war,  and political events had intersected over the millennia to bring us to the 20th century.  He read the Bible and the Quoran, the Greeks and the Romans.  He followed the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and visited remote historical landmarks across the United States.  As children, we were regular visitors to D.C.’s rich array of public memorials and museums.  But always, he came back to World War II, the war we did not truly win, the war whose lack of resolution continues to spill over into the most painful conflicts of subsequent generations until this very day.  He had been a firm believer in capitalism and democracy but after a career in the foreign service, he became disillusioned, concluding that no government was free from corruption.

In the twilight years of his life, he gave me two books about World War 11, both by historian and writer, Lynne Olson:  Citizens of London and Last Hope Island.  I loved Citizens of London, a history of American involvement with England during World War II that reads like a thriller.  But it was the last book he gave me about the escape of the leaders, mostly monarchs, from the European continent to England and the resistance they left behind and tried to support from England that kept calling to me.  I am still digesting Last Hope Island and a deeper understanding of the man who gave it to me.

My father talked to me in code about what really happened during his career working for the government of the United States of America.  He loved the Bourne Identity movies and recommended The Gardener and several other movies that portrayed the CIA and other shadowy organizations as influencing and manipulating, if not overtly controlling, political situations all over the globe.  Before his death, his tongue loosened even more and he told stories about his ability to counter that power and influence.  He often stopped covert CIA operations and deportations of journalists and political activists, even those who were Communists.  And he negotiated, sometimes successfully, for the better treatment or release of political prisoners in the countries where he was posted.

As I read Last Hope Island, I got to know my father in a way that he could not directly convey to me.  It is a breathtaking account of World War II that portrays the efforts of individuals and small groups that turned the tide of the war.   Without them the war would have either been lost or lasted much longer with countless more deaths.  Author Lynne Olson reveals that it was hundreds of thousands of active resisters along with millions of passive resisters who contributed as much, if not more, to the victory of the Allies than did the famous Generals.  She highlights the role of women who risked and often gave their lives to fight the SS with stereotypical feminine wiles as well as with physical agility and mental force.

Queen Wilhelmina had to flee the Netherlands but worked tirelessly for her Dutch subjects from London.  Nevertheless, many were tortured, imprisoned, and executed, at least partially due to the lack of coordination between the two British espionage organizations, MI9, an offshoot of MI6, and Special Operations Executive, SOE, designed to deliver support to the resistance in Europe.  And when the Allies invaded Europe, bungling decisions made by military commanders resulted in Holland’s Hunger Winter during which many Dutch people, especially children and the elderly, died of starvation or starvation related conditions.

A young teenager, later known as Audrey Hepburn, worked as a courier for the Belgian resistance.  Like many Europeans during the war, she suffered from malnutrition which caused her lifelong health issues.

Another Belgian women in her early twenties, Andree de Jong, spirited countless soldiers, shot down over Europe, through France and over the Pyrenees into Spain via her network, known as the Comet.  She was nicknamed Deedee and “the little cyclone.”

Mary Lindell, Comtesse de Milleville, was a wealthy English woman who lived in France and spoke fluent French with no accent.  She repeatedly defied the two British espionage organizations, MI9 and the SOE, to work with the resistance, carrying out many dramatically successful schemes with sheer force of will and mesmerizing personality.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade ran a French resistance network, known as Alliance, which numbered more than three thousand agents, five hundred of whom were arrested, tortured, and executed over the course of the war.  Fourcade herself was arrested twice by the Gestapo but escaped both times.

Jeannie Rousseau, another Frenchwoman, posed as a business woman working with the Germans while collecting intelligence and reporting to London.  Eventually she was caught by the Gestapo and sent to three different concentration camps.

Both Mary Lindell and Deedee also ended up in concentrations camps but remarkably, all three women survived, continuing to defy the Germans even in the most horrific conditions.  They were emaciated wraiths by the time they were rescued by the Swedish Red Cross at the end of the war.  It is thanks to Lynn Olson’s tireless research that we now know so much about the well kept secrets of the active and passive resistance by millions of Europeans.

These are just a few of the remarkable women’s stories told in Last Hope Island.  By the end of the book, I realized that my father was a feminist, a man who supported women’s equality and aspirations and always encouraged me, my sisters, and all of his granddaughters to fulfill our potential.  His study of history instilled in him a deep respect for feminine power.  The other influence was his mother, a woman who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, lost her own mother as a young child, lost her first husband in a tragic motorcycle accident, and gave up her own dreams of being a writer to remarry and raise six children.  His goal in life was to make her proud, to give meaning and purpose to her own unfulfilled aspirations.

As my father knew, governments, even the government of Last Hope Island, do not maintain and save democracy.  It is the people, rich and poor, women and men, young and old, of every race, culture, ethnicity, and sexual orientation who work together for peace and justice.  Last Hope Island was a place of relative refuge where the greatest power players of Europe, and later America, moved their soldiers and resistance workers around like chess pieces.  So Last Hope Island also became the stage for backstabbing betrayals, broken promises, political intrigue and constant infighting.  But the message for me from my father and author Lynne Olson is that no matter how many mistakes and selfish decisions are made by the heads of states and armies, it is the people and the soldiers who do the hard work of resisting fascism and authoritarianism.  It is common people who make the most lasting contribution, if not most acknowledged, to the human experience.  Without them, we would not have history, science, art, literature, or any semblance of peace.

We are those people now.

(For a captivating dramatization of British spies and French resistance workers, highlighting the role of women, see the British series, “Wish Me Luck”.)

The photo is of my father playing Monopoly with my three siblings, (Angie, George, Amy) and me. When he wasn't working hard, he played hard at tennis, golf, coaching our sports, watching movies, reading voraciously, and playing board and card games with us.