Kirjahaku

In March 1944, eleven divisions of German troops marched into Hungary. Thousands of Jews were rounded up and deported to death camps. Desperately, they sought foreign diplomatic relations, false identity papers, and hiding places. Vali Racz R���¡cz was a successful singer and film actress, the darling of the Hungarian public. Since she was young, beautiful, and safely Aryan, the Nazis represented no particular threat to her, but she was horrified by the persecution of the Jews, many of whom were friends and mentors. Risking her own life, she turned her villa in Buda into a secret refuge. Monica Porter traces both the life of her remarkable and courageous mother and a fascinating period in Hungarian history. In September 1991, the Jewish people's highest expression of gratitude was conferred upon Vali Racz in Jerusalem: the title of 'Righteous among the Nations'.

Since the seventeenth century, the café, or coffee house, in Europe has been the key gathering place of innovators and mavericks – the writers, artists, philosophers and political figures who formed influential affiliations and gave birth to revolutionary movements that still affect our lives today. It was the type of establishment ideally suited for this role. Unlike the tavern, pub or bar, where one’s senses grow ever duller from alcohol, one can sit for hours in a café with like-minded companions, consuming the coffee that sharpens wits and conversations. No wonder so many new ideas were generated in the legendary cafés of Paris and Vienna, Rome and Venice, Prague, Budapest and other major European cities. In her latest book, Monica Porter leads the reader on an entertaining waltz through six centuries, nine European countries (plus America) and a wealth of historic episodes featuring some of the most intriguing and noteworthy people who ever lived. As she reveals, playing its vital part in all their stories – at times in the background, at times front and centre – is that enticing venue: the café. The twelve venerable establishments of the book’s title – the oldest dating from 1686, the newest from 1911 – are all still in existence. And so, after learning about their fascinating historical associations, readers can experience these places for themselves, which makes the volume an ideal companion for history buffs, travellers and café-lovers alike.

Readers of all generations have grown up on The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier's best-selling tale of children under wartime occupation, but few know the real life stories of the children and teenagers who went further and actually stood up to the Nazis. Here, for the first time, Monica Porter gathers together their stories from many corners of occupied Europe, showing how in a variety of audacious and inventive ways children as young as six resisted the Nazi menace, risking and sometimes even sacrificing their brief lives in the process: a heroism that until now has largely gone unsung. These courageous youngsters came from all classes and backgrounds. There were high school drop-outs and social misfits, brainy bookworms, the children of farmers and factory workers. Some lost their entire families to the war, yet fought on alone. Often more adept and fearless at resistance than adults, they exuded an air of guilessness and could slip more easily under the Nazi radar. But as nets tightened, many were captured, tortured or imprisoned, some paying the highest price - a life cut short by execution before they had even turned eighteen. These children were motivated by different ideals; patriotism, political conviction, their Christian beliefs, or revulsion at the brutality of the Third Reich. But what united them was their determination to strike back at an enemy which had deprived them of their freedom, their dignity - and their childhood.

Monica Porter, a sixty-year-old grandmother, thinks her sex life is over when she is ditched by her long-term partner. That is until she joins a dating website and finds that her age acts as an aphrodisiac to hordes of highly-sexed young men.