![]() I gave the book four stars only because there were so many characters involved in the book that it came across as a bit confusing. He came across as a real testament to his faith. The other thing I particularly liked about the book was that John was a very devout Seventh-day Adventist whose religion was very much a part of him and his life. He was arrested four times by the Gestapo, beaten and tortured, and once with a friend managed to escape prison. After reading this book, I admired John so much. After that, John and the underground helped people illegally. Eventually, more and more underground people helped John, but, he was running out of legal ways to help people. John started out helping people in small ways, and almost always a legal way. Now France turned it's back on the refugees too. Many of the Jews were already refugees from other countries also taken over by Germany. John was in the textile business and doing well, but when he saw the mass chaos brought in the wake of the Germans he felt he had to do something to help the suffering population, especially the Jews. John was also brought up as a Seventh-day Adventist and his father was a clergyman. John's native country was Holland, but, by 1940 when the German's took over France he had already been living and working if France for several years. This is the story of John Henry Weidner and the Dutch-Paris underground. Ford clearly demonstrated the differences between these two versions of humanity. The world needs more people like Johan Weidner, and less like those imitating the Gestapo. Author Herbert Ford's characterization of the influence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in shaping Weidner, I would suspect, was influenced by Ford's position at Pacific Union College, a Seventh-day Adventist facility. He seemed to be the sort of person that would have been brave and resourceful regardless of religion. If the author was attempting to be convincing that Weidner's actions were driven by his religion, I'd probably disagree. Certainly there were many non-religious people working for and with the underground. The second was the continual reminder of Weidner's faith in God as a driving force in his mission to save persecuted Jews and others in France. Weidner's daring activities never came to life in these pages. The first is that the story was "flatter" than it needed to be. I had two primary concerns regarding the book itself (certainly no concerns about Weidner). and the ultimate tribute, a 5 million-franc price on his head issued by the Gestapo,' observed Time magazine in an account of his death" (p. "'His daring earned him medals from France, Belgium, Britain, and the U.S. At the conclusion of the war, his actions were recognized with awards from many countries. He put his life on the line, literally, even being tortured in captivity. ![]() There is no doubt that Weidner was a hero. In the process, he lost his sister in a concentration camp, along with many friends.įlee The Captor is author Herbert Ford's depiction of Weidner's actions during this period. By the end of the war, he had assisted in the escape of hundreds of Jews, as well as a large number of Allied pilots and crews. A.During WWII, Johan (John) Hendrik Weidner decided he needed to do something to help the people in France who were subject to Nazi persecution, deportation, and death. ![]() as comrades in a common human cause.' – W. And it was because of this dimension of John’s life that he, a Seventh-day Adventist, and I, the Reformed pastor, regarded ourselves. he had that directness that simplicity of faith which made him realize that he was at all times in the hands of a loving God. 'Why was it that John accepted all these risks so readily?. His answer was brief and to the point: 'They were God’s children they were human beings.’ – Haskell L. 'I asked John Weidner why he had risked his life repeatedly to save so many. On the same occasion he planted a Saint John's -bread tree along the Avenue of Righteous Gentiles-a further honor for select individuals. Weidner the Righteous Gentile Medal for his work in the Dutch-Paris underground. Others with less moral fortitude may have closed their eyes to the brutality about them but Weidner refused to be cowed and so braved imprisonment and torture for his humanitarian efforts. John Henry Weidner a hero of history’s greatest holocaust saved the lives of 800 Jews more than 100 Allied aviators and many others who fled the nightmare of Nazism. he gave us the courage we neededĪnd above all he became the living symbol of a man devoted to his fellow man.' ' He saved my parents he saved my life he saved the livesīut he did more. ![]()
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