Book Review: Three Ordinary Girls by Tim Brady

About:

Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins–and WWII Heroes by Tim Brady tells the story of fierce women fighting in the Dutch Resistance during World War II. Mr. Brady is an award-winning writer of critically acclaimed books.

• 304 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Citadel
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0806540389

My rat­ing for Three Ordinary Girls — 4
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Thoughts:

Every country has its heroes, stories of courage and fortitude. Unfortunately, many of these stories will never leave its shores. I was happy to read Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins–and WWII Heroes by Tim Brady because otherwise I never would have been exposed to these Dutch heroes.

Sometimes, it’s even better reading about other countries’ heroes because the authors are less biased. They tend to lean towards historical accounts instead of propaganda or anecdotes. As James W. Loewen points out in his excellent book Lies My Teacher Told Me, these stories soon make their way to history books.

Hannie Schaft, Freddie Oversteegen and her sister Truus Oversteegen, the women which the book focuses on, have had strong convictions which led them on very dangerous paths.  Hannie Schaft even came to represent Dutch Resistance fighters on a monument honoring them.

The young women hid and rescued Jews, took parts in sabotage, assassinations, as well as running guns and supplies. I’m actually amazed that they survived more than a few months of the Nazi occupation.

The book is very well researched, the author certainly goes to great lengths to get the history correct. Additionally, I’m sure I’m in the minority of readers that actually takes the time to look over the sources. I actually find some new reads quite often. I’m most likely in the majority of those who enjoy reading the footnotes, however.

Buy Three Ordinary Girls from Amazon.com*
More Books by Tim Brady *

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books