Admiral Bertram Ramsay: Dunkirk Was Just the Beginning

by Martha Hutchens

Photo: Lt. C. J. Ware, Royal Navy official photographer.
Imperial War Museums collection
(public domain via Wikimedia Commons).

Last month I told you about a young British naval candidate who was quite unsure if he would ever make midshipman. He entered and left his schooling in the bottom half of his class. His name was Bertram Ramsay.

He did, in fact, enter the British Navy, served in the Dover Strait during WWI, and had a documented lack of tact as a young officer. But he grew and matured, eventually having a successful career in the Navy. Finally, he was put on the retired list in October of 1938 after having some issues with his commanding officer refusing to delegate. I suspect it was a bitter moment.

And then he was assigned to command the post at Dover if war should break out. Dover, which is directly across from Dunkirk. Following his belief in delegating, he sent men to Dunkirk to determine the best landing places. He was the force behind the evacuation at Dunkirk, saving over 330,000 men. But Ramsay was just getting started—in his official retirement, no less.

Cliffs of Dover, image by 4KClips, Deposit Photos

Ramsay spent the next couple of years preparing Dover for the anticipated invasion of England that never actually happens. Then, in 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered the war. The Allies decided to invade North Africa, except they realized no one had any experience landing large amounts of troops. But Ramsay carried 330,000 away from a beach. How different could it be?

Ramsay worked with Cunningham to plan the landing and learned to work with a large number of different people with different ideas. The landing was a success.

And now the Allies needed to invade Italy, starting with Sicily. Once again, Ramsay was chosen. (And if you’re wondering, yes, he was still officially on the retired list.) This time, he did more than plan the landing. He also led the Eastern Naval Task Force in the invasion. This is where Ramsay first displayed one of his superpowers. He knew how to listen.

Ramsay talked to the men who would be landing and to their commanders. He learned what the men needed when they first landed. In the first day. The first week. Then he planned how to get that material to them at the right time.

Ramsay did not continue with the troops into Italy proper. Instead, he was called back to London. At a party at the Dorchester, a military friend found him and whispered congratulations. Ramsay’s new assignment had been released.

He was named Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, commanding the naval forces for D-Day.

From a purely blog-writer’s point of view, I’ve got to say that at this point in the story, I’m just shaking my head. This man commanded the evacuation of Dunkirk, the landing in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily, and now he is taking on D-Day? How have I never heard of him? And how am I going to get his entire story into one blog post? Which, of course, I didn’t.

In February of 1944, Ramsay was invited to 10 Downing Street for a dinner. After the dinner, Churchill told him that he had requested that Ramsay be removed from the retired list. I guess it was just a bridge too far to have the man in charge of the largest invasion in history be retired. In April of 1944, he was made a full Admiral.

D-Day Memorial, image by StockCube, DepositPhotos

On D-Day, Ramsay had 6,833 ships under his command. On the first day of the invasion, D-Day itself, navies under Ramsay’s command delivered 132,000 troops to the shore. Within three weeks, that number rose to 850,000. But that isn’t the entire story. You also have to land food, weapons, and vehicles. 148,000 vehicles and 570,000 tons of supplies. Ramsay’s skills at listening and delegating were surely stretched to their limits. And the numbers only went up from there.

I think the best example of who Ramsay was comes from the following anecdote. The night before D-Day, General Montgomery asked Ramsay what he planned to do. Ramsay replied, “The operation has begun. It is too late to stop it. There is wireless silence and we can expect no signals. I am therefore going to bed.” And from his diary, it seems he was actually able to sleep. The planning was done, and the actions weren’t quite ready. So he slept.

The numbers of men and supplies that had to be landed led to Ramsay’s next battle, this time with his own leadership. All these supplies were coming through the Normandy beaches and temporary harbors. Ramsay spent the second half of 1944 trying to convince the other generals that they needed a major port.

Of course, Germany knew this as well and sabotaged many of the possibilities as they withdrew. In September of 1944, the Allies took Antwerp, which was the second biggest port in Europe at that time. That sounds like just what they needed, except for one problem. Antwerp lies inland, connected to the North Sea by the Scheldt River, and the Germans still controlled the river’s approaches. But after two months, Ramsay finally convinced his superiors.

By November, the Germans were pushed back. Then it took three more weeks for 150 minesweepers to remove the mines from the river. Finally, Allied ships could reach Antwerp.

On December 31, 1944, Ramsay wrote to his wife, saying he wouldn’t be able to return home because he had a little more work to do to secure the port of Antwerp. On January 2, 1945, Ramsay entered the plane he had used to fly throughout Europe. But this time something went wrong. According to eyewitnesses, the plane couldn’t gain altitude and crashed, killing all on board.

At the beginning of this two-post series, I asked what kind of man rescued 338,000 men and that wasn’t even the highlight of his career. Now you know that commanding D-Day was, though I guess that is probably open to interpretation. But one of the ships under his command, the USS Texas, wrote its own name into history in this same engagement. Learn about its famous exploits here.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at marthahutchens.com.

When his family legacy is on the line, rancher Drew McGraw becomes desperate for someone to tame and tutor his three children. Desperate enough to seek a mail-order bride. But when the wrong woman arrives on his doorstep, Drew balks.

Heiress Kaitlyn Montgomery runs straight from the scandal chasing her toward a fresh start on a secluded ranch. She strikes a bargain with Drew—a marriage convenient for both of them.

But the more Kaitlyn adapts to ranch life and forms a bond with Drew’s children and their enigmatic father, she realizes that this ranch is where she is meant to be. And then her past catches up with her…

Pretzels and Prayer

By Lynn U. Watson

Are you a connoisseur of big, fresh, chewy, Bavarian-style pretzels—the kind you often find from a vendor in the mall or a special bake shop? They have quite a history, and it’s tied to prayer.


(image from Pixabay)

Legend suggests, it all began with a monk in Italy or Southern France around 610 A.D. Looking for a way to teach children about prayer, he shaped bread dough to resemble arms folded across the chest with the hands resting on the shoulders, a humble position, common for prayer at the time. He called them pretiola or little rewards. He offered them as an incentive for children to learn their prayers well.

Another legend—not such a nice one—suggests bakers in Germany were held hostage by local dignitaries. The pretzel was created in retaliation. (I’m not sure how that would work.)

Historical records have produced no proof of either the sweet little story or the one about the hostage bakers. The pretzel did, however, become the symbol of Bakers and their guilds in southern Germany as far back as the 12th century. Bakers still use it today. Bakery sign pictured here with two lions holding a pretzel, in Gorlitz, Germany.



(public domain)

Alsace in southern France is a mere 91 miles from Baden-Wurttemberg in southwest Germany. The Hortus deliciarum, a pictorial encyclopedia from the Alsace region, contains this 12th century depiction of a banquet with Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus. Look closely. There is a depiction of the knotted bread on their table.



(public domain)


Fun facts about the pretzel:

The three holes the loops create represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Pretzels include no meat, eggs, or dairy, so they were considered appropriate Lenten food.

Pretzel Sunday (4th Sunday in Lent) is celebrated in Luxembourg with a pretzel festival. Boys give their girlfriends pretzels to show how much they like them. The bigger the pretzel the more the admiration. The girl may gift him a fancy decorated Easter egg 2 weeks later suggesting he increase his attention. This ancient custom remains alive in the Swabian Alps.

The Brezel (German name) may have been derived from Latin word brachiola, meaning little arms.


Would you like to make the big pretzels at home? In dread fear of how difficult the task would be, I ordered a book on Pretzel making anyway, and I created my own. There was nothing difficult about them—just lots of twisting, shaping, and waiting. There are many recipes out there. The one I used, contains Pilsner beer and Barley Malt syrup. The beer adds yeast and both add unique flavor. I dipped them in a baking soda bath before baking. They get plenty of compliments.

(my photo)


This is not the exact recipe I use, but very close. Beer Soft Pretzels from Jennifer Meyering.

Little things often have big meaning. The pretzel--a simple knotted bread--reminds us of humility and turning our hearts to God in prayer.

Award-winning author, Lynn U. Watson, is the great-granddaughterr of a baron from Southwest Germany. Snippets of her family's story inspire her fiction writing. Following in her grandmother's footsteps, Lynn sewed for the public--everything from adorable children's outfits to formal and bridal wear. She and her artist husband, Steve, created the Lynn'n Butterfly Collection of counted-cross-stitch leaflets. In 2007, Lynn became a certified reflexologist, and Footsteps in Eden was born. Lynn's touch therapy skills bring relaxation to her clients one pair of feet at a time. Jasmine, the resident feline, runs the place, while Lynn combines her passions and her heritage, Stepping through time, Stitching stories of faith.

In this Christmas meet-cute, you'll laugh and cry and wonder just how silly things can get with a bunch of kids in a dancing Christmas play. Lyydi and her friend, Summer, lead the children to exclaim, "The baby is the Gift!"

This little bonus story is the bridge between Frayed Promises (book2) and Planted Promises (book 3 upcoming) in Lynn's Promised Destiny series. You'll discover more of Lyydi and Benj's story in Planted Promises where new mysteries and more family secrets will keep you cheering for this couple, and where Nancy Drew style clues will keep you guessing until the end.

Women of Resistance: Lela Karagianni

 

In the case of Greek resistance member Lela Karagianni, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” seems to fit. Her great-grandmother was Laskarina Bouboulina, “legendary naval commander of the Greek War of Independence," so when the Nazis showed up and occupied Athens, Lela was compelled to respond.

Eleni “Lela” Minopoulou was born June 24, 1898, on the Grecian island of Euboea. Little is known of her childhood other than she was the eldest daughter in the family. She married pharmacist Nikolaos Karagiannis in 1916, and the couple had seven children. They lived in Athens where Nikolaos operated a pharmacy.

When the Axis forces invaded and occupied Greece in April 1941, the family sprang into action and joined the National Republican Greek League. The family then founded, financed, and operated the “Bouboulina” resistance cell named in honor of her great-grandmother out of the back of the pharmacy. Later activities were also conducted from a monastery in Megara. The group collected intelligence and passed it to the Allies, smuggled people out of the Nazi zone and into the mountains, led British nationals to Egypt, hid Jewish refugees, forged documents and performed acts of sabotage.

Their activities went on for more than three years, then in July 1944, Lela, Nikolaos, and five of their

children were arrested. Separated, she was taken to Gestapo headquarters where she was interrogated and tortured, but by all reports, never released the names of other resistance members. She was transferred to Haidari, the largest and most “notorious” concentration and transit camp in Greece. Fellow prisoners later shared “how she’d lifted their spirits with prayer, song, and determination.” Additionally, she somehow managed to continue coordinating resistance activities from inside.

Tragically, only thirty-four days before Athens was liberated, Lela was executed, bold to the end, shouting, “Let the Nazis see that the Greeks know how to die for their homeland.” Friends managed to obtain her body and buried her in the 2nd Cemetery of Patissia. Her husband and children all survived the war.

Her home in Athens is a protected monument, and the city named a street after her. She was posthumously awarded the Virtue and Self-Sacrifice Award, as well as being named Righteous of the Nations by Yad Vashem. A marble bust of Lela is located on Tositsa Street, and a bronze bust is housed in the Athens War Museum.

_____________________________

Swedish Sunrise – Coming September 15, 2026)

Espionage. Diplomacy. Resistance. Is there any room for love?

Weeks after being accepted into America’s Office of Strategic Services, Birgit Westgard finds herself in Stockholm, Sweden - “Casablanca of the North.” The job is supposed to be easy: typing and filing. Then her handsome boss taps her to be his “plus-one” at social events where they collect intelligence, plant propaganda, and dance the nights away. How much longer can she remain impervious to his charm?

Silas Cronin is one of the lucky ones, and his plane crash lands in neutral Sweden. Bored with cooling his heels in an internment camp, he raises his hand when the government comes looking for someone who can type. Suddenly, he’s in Stockholm, mired in intrigue and subterfuge, and more than a little attracted to his new secretary who wants nothing to do with him. Is she right that wartime is no time for romance?

Pre-Order Link: https://books2read.com/u/3RRqyv

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances

and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state, immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors, and drinks copious amounts of tea.

Sources:
https://militarytourism.warmuseum.gr/en/attractions/lela-karagianni
https://www.thenationalherald.com/the-brave-women-of-1940/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lela_Karagianni
https://greekamerica.org/lela-karagianni-greeces-mother-of-the-resistance/
https://www.ekaterinabotziou.com/remembering-greek-heroes-the-story-of-lela-karagianni/
https://pappaspost.com/on-this-day-september-8-1944-resistance-fighter-lela-karagianni-is-murdered-by-the-nazis/

Photo Credits:
Lela in Hat: By Unknown author - https://rethnea.gr/πως-γιόρτασε-το-ρέθυμνο-τα-πρώτα-του-α/, Public Domain.
Lela’s House in Athens: By Nagaremono, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58505175
Bronze Bust: By Macedon-40 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44472921

Mary Anning - A Self-Educated 1800's Fossil Hunter Who Became a Renowned Expert in Geology and Paleontology

By Mary Dodge Allen 

How did a young British girl who grew up in poverty and sold fossils to help support her family, become recognized by the British Royal Society as "One of the ten most influential women in the history of science?"

Painting of Mary Anning and her dog Tray, prior to 1842 (Public Domain)

Humble Beginnings:

Mary Anning was born on May 21, 1799 in the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset, England. Out of ten children, Mary and her older brother Joseph were the only two who survived beyond childhood. Child mortality was high, due to poverty and disease.

Mary was a sickly child, until something strange happened when she was 15 months old. During a thunderstorm, a neighbor picked up Mary and sheltered her under an elm tree with two other women. Lightning struck the tree and killed the three women - but Mary was revived. The local doctor considered her survival a miracle.

After this experience, Mary's health dramatically improved. She became a lively child, filled with intelligence and intense curiosity. Education at this time was limited, especially for girls, but the family attended a Congregationalist church, which believed in education for all. Mary learned to read and write in Sunday school.

Fossil Hunting to Earn Income:

The Blue Lias of the Jurassic Coast, credit Tony Waltham/Robert Harding

The town of Lyme Regis is located on the 'Jurassic Coast,' one of the richest fossil locations in Britain. The area's seaside cliffs are part of the Blue Lias - a geological formation of sediment layers from an ancient seabed during the Jurassic period, 210-195 million years ago. 

(The scientific study of ancient fossils was in its infancy in the early 1800s. In fact, the term "Paleontology' wasn't used until 1822.)

Lyme Regis was also a seaside resort town for the English gentry. These wealthy visitors viewed fossils as curiosities - "curios" - to be collected. Town residents earned extra money by selling fossils to visitors, often hinting that these "curios" possessed mystical or medicinal properties.

The Anning family lived close to the seashore, and strong storms often flooded their house. One time, the family had to climb out an upstairs window to avoid drowning. But these storms provided opportunities for income. Crashing waves caused the unstable limestone and shale cliffs to crumble into landslides, exposing new fossils.

Mary's father, a carpenter, regularly hunted and sold fossils to supplement his meager income. At the age of five, Mary began accompanying him and her older brother Joseph. She became an avid fossil hunter.

In 1810, when Mary was eleven years old, her father died, leaving behind large debts and no savings. They received a small amount of assistance from the Overseers of the Poor, but they relied on their fossil business to survive. Mary and Joseph continued searching for fossils, and their mother sold their "curios" at a table set up near a local inn.

The First Big Fossil Find:

Ichthyosaurus skull found by Joseph Anning, drawn by Everard Home, 1814

In 1811, Joseph dug up a 4-foot long Ichthyosaur skull. Months later, in 1812, Mary found the rest of the skeleton, which was nearly 15 feet long. A wealthy landowner purchased it from the Annings for £23. It was a tidy sum, but not enough to get them out of debt.

Mary Anning's Ichthyosaurus skeleton (University of Oxford)

Note: By 1819, this original Ichthyosaur skeleton was on display at the British Museum in London, but the Annings received no credit for its discovery because they were not considered part of the scientific community.

A Shocking Find:

In 1815, Mary made a discovery that affected her deeply - the dead body of a young woman who had been shipwrecked and washed ashore. The body was taken to the local church, and Mary placed fresh flowers on the woman's body every day until relatives claimed it.

An Auction Saves the Anning Family:

By 1820, older brother Joseph had begun working as an upholstery apprentice. Mary continued fossil-hunting, but it became difficult to find enough of them to support her family. Things got so desperate, they began selling their furniture to pay the rent. 

A wealthy fossil collector named Thomas Birch, who had purchased many of his finest specimens from the Annings, decided to help. In May 1820, he set up a 3-day auction in London to sell all the fossils he had purchased from them, with the intent of giving them the proceeds.

Buyers arrived from places as far as Vienna and Paris. The auction succeeded in raising £400, which put the Anning family on a firmer financial footing. The auction also raised Mary Anning's profile in the geological field.

The following year, Mary found three additional Ichthyosaur skeletons, ranging from 5 to 20 feet long. Artist and fossil collector George Cumberland wrote:

"The very finest specimen of a fossil Ichthyosaurus ever found in Europe... we owe entirely to... a female fossilist, of the name of Anning... and her dangerous employment."

The Dangers of Fossil-Hunting:

In 1823, The Bristol Mirror wrote an article about Mary Anning:

"This persevering female has for years gone daily in search of fossil remains... for many miles under the hanging cliffs at Lyme, whose fallen masses are her immediate object... [they] must be snatched at the moment of their fall, at the continual risk of being crushed by the half suspended fragments they leave behind."

One day, Mary narrowly avoided death when a landslide buried her beloved dog, Tray. Mary wrote to a friend:

"...the death of my old faithful dog has quite upset me, the cliff that fell upon him and killed him in a moment before my eyes, and close to my feet... it was but a moment between me and the same fate."

Mary, A Self-Educated Scientist:

Mary's intense curiosity about fossils and anatomy led her to read scientific papers written by naturalists. Through diligent study, she mastered scientific terms and procedures. Eventually, Mary became an expert in reconstructing skeletons and drawing detailed technical illustrations of them.

A wealthy admirer, Lady Harriet Silvester wrote about Mary after visiting her in 1824:

"... by reading and application she has arrived to that degree of knowledge as to be in the habit of writing and talking with professors... and they all acknowledge that she understands more of the science than anyone else in this kingdom."

A Discovery that Amazed Experts:

Mary Anning's Plesiosaur skeleton (Natural History Museum in London)

By 1823, at the age of 24, Mary made the first discovery of a complete Plesiosaur skeleton. Its skeleton was so unusual, many scientists refused to believe it had ever existed. After London's Geological Society gathered to study the find, they agreed it was genuine. Eminent French scientist Georges Cuvier stated: 

"It is the most amazing creature ever discovered."

Sketch of Mary Anning's house and shop, 1842 (Public Domain)

In 1826, Mary saved enough money to purchase a house with a glass storefront in Lyme Regis so she could open a shop - Anning's Fossil Depot. Prominent geologists and fossil collectors from all over Europe and even America visited her shop.

Other Notable Discoveries:

Drawing of Belemnoidea fossil (Public Domain)

In 1828, Mary discovered ink bags of 10-armed Belemnoidea fossils. (These creatures were similar to squid and could eject ink into the water.) Amazingly, Mary found that the ink inside the fossilized bags could be extracted and used in pens to make her drawings!

Pterosaur painting in imagined environment (Public Domain)

Mary also discovered the first Pterosaur - flying reptile - fossil found outside of Germany. It was the first species of the Dimorphodon genus, the Dimorphodon macronyx.

In 1829, she discovered a fish fossil, Squaloraja - which appeared to be part shark, part ray.

In 1830, she discovered a complete, fossilized Plesiosaurus macrocephalus. A cast of this fossil is displayed at the Natural History Museum in Paris, France.

Later Life:

Mary Anning never married, and even though she achieved success in her scientific field, she remained poor. A friend, Anna Maria Penney wrote about Mary's generosity:

"She is very kind and good to all her own relations, and what money she gets by collecting fossils, goes to them or anyone else that wants it."

In 1838, the British Association for the Advancement of Science began paying Mary a small income from an annuity, because of the importance of the discoveries she made.

Mary Anning died of breast cancer on March 9, 1847, at the age of 47. She was buried in the churchyard of St. Michael's, the local church. Members of the Geological Society of London contributed to having a stained-glass window made for St. Michael's church, in memory of Mary Anning. 

Stained-glass window honoring Mary Anning in St. Michael's church (Public Domain)

This window was dedicated to Mary Anning in 1850: "in commemoration of her usefulness in furthering the science of geology, as also of her benevolence of heart and integrity of life."

Statue of Mary Anning with her dog, Tray (Public Domain)

On May 21, 2022 - the 223rd anniversary of her birth - a statue of Mary Anning was unveiled in Lyme Regis, overlooking Black Ven, the area where she made many of her discoveries.

Mary Anning rose from an impoverished background to become a true trailblazer for women in the male-dominated world of science. Her amazing fossil discoveries contributed to the advancement of both geology and paleontology.

_________________

Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Book

Lessons We Can Learn From History: The Jewish Holocaust

 

By Donna Wichelman

Part I of a two-part article on the Jewish Roundup of 10 January 1944 in France. (Originally posted on February 4, 2024 as part of a series on World War Two.)

In October 2023, I had the privilege of interviewing four people from Libourne, 
France, where my Historical World War II Slip-time novel is set. Sadly, two of them have passed away--Monsieur René Avril and Madame Marie-José Delage. You can access their stories at the June 4th Blog and August 4th Blog, 2026 blog posts. But this past May, I had the opportunity to visit with Madame Josette Melinon once again to thank her for sharing her story with me about her family's tragic loses as Jews living in France during the German occupation between June 1940 and August 1944 in Bordeaux.

Donna and Madame Josette Melinon: Donna's Archives, October 2023

This past 10 January 2026 marked the 82nd anniversary of the 10th of January 1944 roundup of Jews in German-occupied France. It’s with that in mind that I continue my series on the German Occupation of France during World War II by turning to a topic that many of us find difficult to acknowledge because it’s so horrific. Yet, we can't ignore that the Holocaust existed and six million Jews were annihilated by war's end. Though many in our present-day world try to sweep it under the carpet or deny it ever happened, the preponderance of the evidence is inescapable.

2024 Commemoration Events of the 80th Anniversary of the 10 January 1944

So, when I entered Madame Josette Melinon's house on 9 October, 2023, I knew her story would be sobering. Indeed, Madame Melinon’s passion for what happened to her relatives during the occupation took hold in 2004 when one of the teachers in the middle school nearby took a class to see an exhibition of the Jewish children deported to a town called Oświęcim near the German/Polish border. We know the place as the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Among the children they saw was a young lady who was from their hometown of Libourne, and they wanted to learn more about her.

The teacher posted an article in the local newspaper asking if anyone knew about the young lady. Madame Melinon read the article and recognized the girl as Myriam Errera, her mother’s cousin. The teacher organized a meeting and invited Madame Melinon and her older sister, giving them the opportunity to read a letter to the group. In the letter, she told of her own arrest along with her parents and sister during the Roundup on 10 January 1944 in the Bordeaux region of occupied France. The telling of that story began a journey that Madame Melinon has continued to this day.

According to Wikipedia, the Roundup of 10 January 1944 was the fourth and final roundup of Jews in the Aquitaine between July 1942 and January 1944. Before the war, more than five thousand Jews had lived in Bordeaux, many of them refugees who had fled Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1940. Maurice Papon, then secretary general of the Gironde and future minister of the Fifth Republic, organized the roundup, detaining 335 men, women, and children. On 12 January 1944, 317 people were taken to Drancy Internment Camp in northern France and later that month sent to Auschwitz.

Newspaper Article About the Roundup of Jews in Paris 1941, Madame Josette Melinon's Archives

Nazi Flag on the Libourne Town Hall During the Occupation, Libourne City Archives

“I was at home with my sister,” Madame Melinon, who was a young girl at the time, said. “After dinner, my father was listening to the English radio at our friends’ house. When the Germans arrived, my mother ran to the garden to tell my father what was happening. I can remember the picture in my memory—the picture of the German boots that went upstairs in our house, which affected me because we weren’t allowed to go upstairs with our shoes on. But they were going up with their boots on.

“When they [the soldiers] arrived on the first floor (second floor in the United States), they followed my mother into her bedroom and said to her, ‘Knickers baby. Knickers, baby.’ And she gave them all of her knickers.

“We had to walk along the road that goes down to the river while it was raining, and there were five or six Germans in front of us. My mother held my hand very tightly. But when we arrived at the prison, I remember straight stairs leading up and walls that were a very dirty pink. The stairs came out onto a room with people I knew—most of them family— and my grandmother sitting on a bench. They all passed me around and kissed me, and I felt stifled without understanding what was happening.”

Prison Where Madame Melinon and Her Family Were Taken, the Association Libournaise Souvenir Myriam Errera

Madame Josette Melinon was one of the eighteen people, including her father and sister, who did not ride with the others to Drancy. If it had not been for quick thinking by her father, her story would have ended that night.

You see, Madame Melinon’s mother’s side of the family was Jewish—her great-grandmother from eastern France was Ashkenazi, and her great-grandfather was Sephardic from Portugal. Her father’s side, however, was Catholic. Her mother and father had initially decided to raise the oldest child (her sister) in the Catholic faith and the second (Josette) in the Jewish faith. But events changed all that.

Three days and two nights passed until her father could find papers proving he was not a Jew. In addition, he found a priest who risked backdating a baptismal certificate for Josette and located baptismal certificates going back seven generations as required by the German SS.

Josette and Her Father 10 January 1944, Madame Melinon's Archives

Josette's Baptismal Certificate, Madame Melinon's Archives

The baptismal certificates were enough to prove that Josette’s father, sister, and Josette were Christians, and the Nazis let them go. But what happened to Josette’s mother and the rest of her relatives, including Myriam Errera, the girl whose picture the middle school students saw? Moreover, how and why did the Association Souvenir Myriam Errera come to exist? And what are the lessons we can learn from history in the 21st century?

Read the rest of Madame Melinon’s story in Part II about this dreadful era in our world’s history.

See also: this French newspaper article.

Donna is an Angel Book Award-winning author of Historical Romance for A Song of Deliverance. Rhythms of the Heart, Book 2 is an interconnected stand-alone set in the same Victoria mining community of Georgetown, Colorado.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. Her romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. 

Donna and her husband of forty-one years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible. 

Author Spotlight: Terrie Todd, a Late Bloomer!

Me in Grade 3

Growing up in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, as the youngest of five kids, I loved nothing more than imaginary play by myself. I’m grateful to have been raised in a family that loved Jesus. I attended church regularly, and the annual week at Bible camp during summer break was the highlight of my year. My earliest recollection of being drawn to the world of books was when our second-grade teacher read to us from Fingerling: Just a Little Man. I loved the story so much I borrowed it to take home and conveniently forgot to return it for a year or more! I’ve since learned that the book was originally written in Dutch by Dick Laan and is extremely hard to find. It was my seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Armstrong, who first made me believe I might have a knack for writing. 

Grade 10 at Sunshine

Influenced by our pastors’ family, whose daughter was a good friend, I attended high school at Sunshine Bible Academy near Miller, South Dakota, because I loved the idea of learning from Christian teachers and being surrounded by like-minded friends. My four years there were a wonderful experience where I grew in my faith and expanded my horizons. That’s also where I met my future husband, a South Dakota boy named Jon Todd, whose parents had meanwhile moved to Manitoba! We married four months after my graduation in 1977.

October 1, 1977

We spent our first five years of married life in Longview, Texas, where Jon attended LeTourneau College (now University), where we made more lifelong friends, and where I worked at a McDonald’s restaurant for a year and then at a swimming pool company. By the time we returned to Canada, our first son was born, and our daughter was on the way. Another son was born in 1986. We’ve stayed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, all these years. We now have five grandsons added to the family, and we’re a little more geographically spread out than I’d like. 

Our family in 2022. Our 45th anniversary.

Although I loved being a stay-at-home mom, financial reality had me trying a variety of careers. I cleaned homes for a decade, was a clerk at a community college for four years, followed by 14 years on staff at my church as an Administrative Assistant and Creative Arts Director. Drama was a huge part of my life during those years, and I later published some of the scripts I wrote for our church drama team. I’m still involved in my local community theater group.

An Easter monologue in 2013. Photo by G. Loewen Photography

My "Covid" project

In 2009, at the age of 50, I decided that if I wanted to pursue writing, I needed to carve out time and get serious. I left my full-time job at the church and took a part-time position as an Administrative Assistant at city hall, another wonderful learning opportunity. With more free time, I began working on my first novel. I chose the historical genre because it seemed like it would be easier to get my characters into trouble, and I made this first project split-time because that’s what I loved reading. I joined writers’ groups, read books on the craft, attended conferences, and entered contests. During those years, I began writing a weekly faith and humor column for our local newspaper, which continued for 14 years and financed my writing habit. In 2020, I published a volume of my most popular columns, called Out of My Mind: A Decade of Faith and Humour.

Mom (80) and me at the Christian Writers Guild conference in 2012. My novel was a finalist, but my friend Peter Leavell won.

From the time I began writing my first novel, The Silver Suitcase, it took four years to land my first agent, then another two years for her to find a publisher, and another year before I could hold the book in my hands. My second and third novels quickly followed. 

Author photo by G. Loewen Photography, with some AI magic I added for fun.

At age 60, I retired from city hall to write full time. It’s been much harder than I imagined, but I am pleased to currently have ten novels and a nonfiction book published, with a few nice awards won along the way. On the Acknowledgments page of each of my books, you’ll see the same closing line: “Above all, my thanks are due to my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, master storyteller and main character in the greatest story ever told.” Jesus understood better than we do how the power of story can break through barriers and reach hearts. My prayer, first and foremost, is that my stories will do just that.

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