Beyond the Book: Night Angels

 

Blurb

From the author of The Last Rose of Shanghai comes a profoundly moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis, based on the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations.

1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats’ wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye.

But when Lola’s family is subjugated to a brutal pogrom, Dr. Ho decides to issue them visas to Shanghai. As violence against the Jews escalates after Kristallnacht and threats mount, Dr. Ho must issue thousands more to help Jews escape Vienna before World War II explodes.

Based on a remarkable true story, Night Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable evil.

My Review

The story begins in 1938 at the Chinese Embassy in Vienna. Vienna is a lovely, cultured city that offers much to both visitors and residents. It’s nicely described. The author didn’t go overboard with too many details, but the ones she used painted a very nice picture. 

Unfortunately, the Nazis are in Vienna in 1938.Their persecution of the Jews is well documented, but each and every time I read something about it I’m freshly appalled at the cruelty and depravity that characterized the Third Reich. 

Slowly, event by event, the tension increased. Each and every time Dr. Ho helped another Jew, the Nazis took note. I expected at any moment for Dr. Ho to be sent to a concentration camp. If he hadn’t been a diplomat I’m sure he would have been. However, the Chinese government recalled him to China because he continued to disregard their orders to stop giving visas to Jews.

Dr. Ho’s wife, who is mainly fictitious, also suffers in Vienna. She has a traumatic experience that changes her profoundly. 

Dr. Ho briefly mentions his time in Vienna in his memoir which was the first time most people knew about it. He always avoided speaking of his experiences in Vienna while he was alive, but after his death his notes and book were translated and shared with the world. He was posthumously recognized with the title Righteous Among the Nations.

It’s a good book, and I think he was a true hero. It’s well worth a read.