The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton
This review was published in the San Francisco Examiner on September 8, 2019
Recent bestsellers like ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ and ‘The Lilac Girls’ focus on the horrors of the Holocaust and the barbarity of the concentration camps. A new novel by Bay Area resident, Meg Waite Clayton, ‘The Last Train to London’ is a fictionalized account of how Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer personally saved a thousand Jewish children from those camps. Her excellent novel enriches the genre and brings to life this brave Dutch heroine.
The novel begins in 1936. Wijsmuller-Meijer, known as Tante Truus, with help from her husband Joop, has been rescuing small groups of children and transporting them out of Germany. Courageous and cunning, she bribes Nazis, endures jail and withstands Gestapo interrogations. Her training as a social worker, her Christian faith and perhaps the sadness of not being able to have children propel her to save innocent lives.
Two young people saved by Tante Truus are Stephan Neuman and Žofie-Helene Perger. In another time, Stephan and Žofie’s courtship might be carefree, but in this dangerous time, their friendship becomes a matter of life and death. Though not religious, Stephan’s family is Jewish. He lives with his mother, father and five-year-old brother Walter in a lavish house in Vienna adorned with paintings by Van Gogh, Klimt and Kokoschka. Žofie is not Jewish. But because her mother publishes scathing editorials about Hitler’s evil regime, Žofie and her family are not safe either. Initially, Stephan and Žofie ignore the Nazi thugs. But after the annexation of Austria by the Nazis in March of 1938, the Nazis intensify their sinister policies. All Jews are subject to escalating viciousness. Stephan is no longer allowed in school. The Nazis loot Stephan’s family’s apartment. They beat Stephan’s father and drag him into a truck headed for a camp.
True to the historical record, Tante Truus encounters Adolph Eichmann. Before the war, Eichmann has been working his way up the Nazi hierarchy. As head of Jewish Office in Vienna, he cynically studies the Viennese Jewish leaders and their culture. Eichmann has not yet written his diabolical “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, but his cruelty is already evident.
In November of 1938, after the ransacking and destruction of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, the British Parliament votes to expedite the rescue of Jewish children. This effort becomes known as the Kindertransport. The English refugee aid leaders believe Tante Truus might be able to persuade Eichmann to let some children leave. In a climactic scene, she meets with the creepy and controlling Eichmann. He makes a joke of her request and for unknown reasons allows six hundred Jewish children to depart Vienna. His caveat: they must go on the Sabbath, a day Orthodox Jews are prohibited from traveling. Thanks to Tante Truus, Žofie, Stephan, and Stephan’s brother, Walter, are three of the six hundred children who escape that day. Between 1938-1940, over ten thousand children find refuge in England.
Clayton’s book is clearly the product of prodigious historical research. It captures the wave of hate and intimidation directed at Vienna’s Jewish community even before WWII begins. While the anti-Semitism is vividly captured, I would have liked to hear more about the rich traditions of the Viennese Jewish community before the Nazis.
‘The Last Train to London’ serves as a reminder that even in dangerous times, each one of us can make a difference. Without resistance, extremist ideologies ferment into full-blown lawlessness. When asked about her boldness, Tante Truus said, “My father used to say courage isn’t the absence of fear, but rather going forward in the face of it.” What is vital about this novel is not that it helps us understand the inhumanity of the Nazis, but rather, it helps us imagine the inspiring humanity of those who opposed them. Thanks to Meg Waite Clayton for bringing Tante Truus to life at this moment when cruelty is once again on the march.