Just One More

The Thirteenth Child by Mark deMeza is a powerful historical novel that I read in just two sittings, pausing only to sleep. It is a fictional account, but very much grounded in fact, of the fate of the Jewish people in Holland during World War II. The main family is fictional but all the others were real people.

This is a heart-breaking account of a truly evil time. The reader witnesses the Nazis marching into Holland in 1940, and then the rapid erosion of the freedoms of the Jewish people.

It is a heart-wrenching read the thoughts of a seven year old Jewish boy, no longer able to play with his best friend who was Aryan. “He felt angry with the Nazis and their yellow star badge… An emptiness weighed him down and had started the moment his best friend had uttered the word goodbye.” Heart-breaking and senseless.

Mark deMeza has created a very powerful and comprehensive tale of when evil walked among the innocent. We see the ruthless but efficient Nazi war machine. The Jewish people complied silently, believing the lies they were told.

As we focus in on one family, they are a microcosm for the macrocosm of the Jewish people – 95% of the Jewish people (German and Dutch) living in Holland, perished under the evil Nazi war machine.

There were some very brave people too, rescuing the innocent, in the hope that they would survive. We see the guilt that haunts a man who wished he had saved “just one more.”

The Thirteenth Child is a powerful book that must be read in memory of the six million innocents who died during World War II, which included 102,000 from Holland. May we never forget.

JULIA WILSON