The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Henriette Roosenburg

“Here is a book full of utterly unselfconscious heroism.”

The Washington Post

“Gripping and beautiful, Roosenburg’s memoir is a tale of bravery that will make you care deeply about its protagonists, even make you weep at their ordeal and homecoming. It is one of the unjustly neglected gems of Second World War literature.”

James Mustich, author of 1,000 Books To Read Before You Die

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“I wept—tears of pride—while reading Henriette Roosenburg’s The Walls Came Tumbling Down. Pride? Yes, pride that human beings can rise to such heights.”

Noel Perrin, Los Angeles Times

“Scribe has done readers a great service by reprinting the unjustly forgotten The Walls Came Tumbling Down by Henriette Roosenburg, nicknamed “Zip” for the frequency with which she once secretly criss-crossed Nazi-held borders, narrates the incredible events that follow her liberation from a German prison by the Soviet military with casual simplicity and a touch of humour…[A] moving, often funny book, despite the circumstances, told by a brave and truly remarkable woman who deserves to be remembered.”

Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness

“[A] gripping memoir.”

Australian Jewish New

“[R]eading Henriette Roosenburg’s gripping memoir of her postwar journey home to Holland from the Waldheim camp in Germany, I feel … awe at the human courage and indefatigable quest for home that pervades the book … The tone of this memoir is upbeat, and surprisingly amusing. The joy of freedom and her delight in being able to take independent action after their long captivity pervades each chapter … Highly recommended.”

Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

“You feel the life seeping back into these wasted, emaciated, exhausted friends like spring itself…You marvel at the capillary action that one caring human being can create in another with simple kindness, but in the end, pure luck, like a blessing, rains down from the heavens.”

Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

How do you start a journey when the roads are blocked? Who can you trust in a country where the Nazi regime has only just fallen?

“This is the story of the liberation of four Dutch political prisoners at the end of World War II, and about their trek home to Holland…” So, modestly, begins this firsthand account of the adventures of three women and one man in the hellish aftermath of the war in Europe. Awakened from the nightmare of prison camp, freed from the fear of the firing squad that had haunted each of them since capture, the four compatriots find that they must still navigate horror itself without food, without papers, without funds. Virtues are all that remain in their possession, and it is these—nobility, friendship, honor, strength, pride in their bloody but unbowed humanity–that guide them home. This is a tale of bravery that will make you care deeply about its protagonists, and weep tears of wonder at their heroism.

“Here is a book full of utterly unselfconscious heroism.”

The Washington Post

James Mustich, author of 1,000 Books To Read Before You Die

View all reviews

“I wept—tears of pride—while reading Henriette Roosenburg’s The Walls Came Tumbling Down. Pride? Yes, pride that human beings can rise to such heights.”

Noel Perrin, Los Angeles Times

Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness

“[A] gripping memoir.”

Australian Jewish New

Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 8.3in × 5.3in

Extent:304pp

ISBN (13):9781950354337

RRP:$18.00

Pub date:2 Nov 2020

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Henriette Roosenburg

Henriette Roosenburg (1916–1972), known as ‘Zip’, was part of the Dutch resistance during World War II, collecting news for the underground press and helping maintain an escape route for crashed Allied pilots. After being arrested in 1944 and condemned to death, she survived internment in a Gestapo prison in Germany before being liberated by the Russian army in May 1945. After the war, she emigrated to the United States, and started to work for Life Magazine. She wrote the first draft of what would later become The Walls Came Tumbling Down for The New Yorker.