Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In 1939, as the Nazi occupation grew from threat to reality, the Jewish population throughout Europe faced heart-wrenching decisions—to flee and lose their homes or to go into hiding, hoping against all odds to avoid the fate of being discovered. Holocaust survivor Flory A. Van Beek faced this terrible choice, and in this poignant testament of hope she takes us on her personal journey into one of history's darkest hours.
Only a teenage girl when the Nazis invaded her neutral homeland of Holland, Flory watched the only life she had ever known disappear. Tearfully leaving her family, Flory tried to escape on the infamous SS Simon Bolivar passenger ship with Felix, the young Jewish man from Germany who would later become her husband. Their voyage brought not safety but more peril as their ship was blown up by Nazi planted mines, one of the first passenger ships destroyed by the Germans during World War II, sending nearly all of its passengers to a watery end. Miraculously, both Flory and Felix survived.
After recovering from their injuries in England, they returned to their homeland, overjoyed to be reunited with their families yet shocked to discover their beloved Holland a much-changed place. As the Nazi grip tightened, they were forced into hiding. Sheltered by compassionate strangers in confined quarters, cut off from the outside world and their relatives, they faced hunger and the stress of daily life shadowed by the ever-present threat of certain death. Yet they also discovered, with the remarkable and brave families who sacrificed their own safety to help keep Flory and Felix alive, a set of friends that remain as close as family to this day.
A tribute to family, faith, and the power of good in the face of disparate evil, this gripping account captures the terror of the Holocaust, the courage of those who risked their lives to protect their fellow compatriots, and the faith of those who, against all odds, managed to survive.
Related to Flory
Related ebooks
Remember: A Boyhood in Auschwitz, Dachau, and with the Angel of Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoss, Liberty and Love: My Journey from Essen to Auschwitz to the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiracles Do Happen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Edelweiss Pirates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHedy's Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Swiss Family Robinson (Diversion Illustrated Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Different Kind of Passover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Refugee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChild Survivors of the Holocaust: The Youngest Remnant and the American Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Lion: A Hero in the Holocaust Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Childhood Behind Barbed Wire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStones Under the Scythe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen They Made Us Leave: Emotional Stories of WWII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving Memory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren in the Holocaust and its Aftermath: Historical and Psychological Studies of the Kestenberg Archive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBroken Promises: The Story of a Jewish Family in Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaper Gauze Ballerina: Memoir of a Holocaust Survivor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChasing the King of Hearts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Memory: A Jewish Family from Nazi Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hunger Winter: The Dutch in Wartime, Survivors Remember Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSave the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mommy, What’s That Number on Your Arm?: A-6374 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemember Your Name Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Scraps of Bread Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Survived Hitler’s Hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trauma, Memory, and the Art of Survival: A Holocaust Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sweetness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sophomore Campaign: A Mickey Tussler Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Things My Son Needs to Know about the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Afeni Shakur: Evolution Of A Revolutionary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Flory
9 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Short read; seems full of weeping crying as far as women's roles are concerned; seems only the men had any significance which I know at this historic place and time just was not true. Not too inspiring (for me at least)?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The holocaust through the eyes of a Dutch survivor. Another great historical count of the resilience of the human spirit. Heroic Dutch people hid Jewish families in their homes despite the risk to their own lives. Although the author lost a multitude of friends and relatives to the gas chambers, lots of miracles happened through various people who helped them survive. It is estimated that of the 140,000 Dutch Jews, only 6,000 survived.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have to agree with the critic. Hearing this read, I felt she was right here beside me. I started this book late at night when I could not go to sleep. I then found myself fighting sleep to hear her story. It is not just about what happened to her and her family but about the people around her, the good, the bad and the ugly. Like my worn copy of Ann Frank, this will be a story I will want to hear again and again. The human will is amazing
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the story of Flory van Beek's experience during World War II. Born and raised in Holland, she tried to leave when Hitler started his evil actions. She and her future husband survive the sinking of the Dutch passenger ship Simon Bolivar in late 1939. After six months of recuperation in England they go back to Holland where endure German occupation and war for six years. They are put into hiding by the Dutch resistance in the homes of good patriots. They survive the war but many of their friends and family do not. One incident that sticks with me - when Flory's mother is deported, she wrote a letter of goodbye to her children on the train taking her to Sobibor extermination camp. She threw that letter off the train. Someone found that letter and delivered it to Flory.I found this book intriguing. It is written by Flory -- her story in her words. It is not literature or prose; it is Flory telling you what happened to her. I feel it was more powerful written this way than if it had a ghost writer changing her words. It is a story of bravery and courage, not only by Flory and her husband but of everyone who helped them survive the war. I highly recommend it.