1944 - “Somewhere in the forest, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Second by second, the escape team shifted glances at one another to get a pulse on what others were thinking. Just then, a lone British fighter was spotted in the sky, and the guards ordered their prisoners off the road so they could not be seen from the air. It was exactly the distraction they had been waiting for. Eyes locked, and their leader yelled, ‘Go!'”
That’s from the Preface to Nina Willner’s book The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood. The escape team, including the author’s father Eddie, was a small band of concentration camp prisoners at the end of the war with one last chance to survive. This is the story of how Eddie managed to survive several death camps with the help of his father and Mike, his best friend.
Alternating chapters also tell the story of the 3rd Armored Division tankers of D Company and Elmer Hovland, a twenty-three-year-old noncom whose battle intelligence turned him into the company’s leader. As the war is ending and Company D is plowing through Germany, they meet Eddie and Mike escaping out of a forest. The soldiers’ compassion is great for these two emaciated teenagers. They take them into their Company, feed them, clothe them, and make them part of their team until it’s time to return home to the States. Fifty years later they all reunite.
As the book jacket says, “This extraordinary story is a testament to survival against all odds, the strength of the bonds forged during war, and the resilience of the human spirit.”
Even if you’ve read plenty of WWII books, you must read The Boys in the Light by Nina Willner.
