The Righteous by Ronald H. Balson ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

By the end of 1943, nearly all of Europe’s Jewish population had fled, been deported, captured, or killed by Hitler. Only Hungary, and its almost 900,000 Jews, remained free from Hitler’s subjugation. They lived under government edicts and restrictions but without fear of harm. That changed in March 1944, after the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, as an avaricious Hitler conquered Hungary and declared his plan for mass extermination of the Jewish people. With the notorious Adolf Eichmann supervising the process, Nazis began rounding up Hungary’s Jewish population.

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September 2025; St. Martin's Press; 978-1250373083
audio, ebook, print (304 pages); historical fiction

Despite what was happening to the Jewish citizens of other countries in Europe, the Jewish people in Hungary still thought that they were safe.  Their President didn't agree with Hitler and didn't want to see his people persecuted.  In fact, he was trying to work with the Axis powers to negotiate an armistice.  In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary, and the new government was led by Adolph Eichmann, whose main goal was to round up the Jewish population of Hungary to be sent to camps and exterminated.  

Julie Powers had just returned to the US  from Amsterdam, where she worked for the US Consulate.  Her main job was to handle requests from European refugees who wanted  VISAs to the US.  After Germany invaded Holland, she worked as an undercover intelligence agent for 18 months.  After that, it became too dangerous for her to stay because her picture was circulated to German personnel, and she was in danger of being caught, but she managed to escape to England and then head home to Michigan.  She was offered a job in DC, but she was tired and wanted to spend time with her family and learn to relax again after being in danger in Holland.  She met with her best friend from U of M, who wanted to know if she had any information about what was happening with the Jewish people in Hungary.  Her parents lived there, and she was unable to get in touch with them.  Theresa and Julie ended up going to Hungary to try to find her parents and try to get them to a safer place.  At the time, her father still felt that it was safe for Jewish people in Hungary, and he was totally against escaping to America.  As life in Hungary got more difficult, he still felt that it was his place to stay and help his people.  Will Theresa be able to convince her family to leave their lives in Hungary and move to safety?

“I don’t know Eichmann. To me, he’s just another German. … Either way, I am not leaving.”

I found it very interesting to read about the Americans in government who didn't believe that the Jewish people were in trouble and refused to allow more of them to immigrate to the US. There were several US leaders who were very anti-Semitic and didn't really believe that a mass extermination was taking place in Europe.

My only complaint about this book is that at times it seemed like a nonfiction book - the author got into sharing what was going on in the US and Europe, and didn't have space to develop his characters.  Despite that issue, this was a book about brave women who were real heroes in the work that they did to save Jewish people, despite the danger to themselves.

Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the end, where we learn about the real people who were in the novel and the real people that other characters were based on.  I've read all of this author's books -- this wasn't my favorite, but I'll be looking forward to his next book.

NOTE:  At the beginning of World War II, in 1941, the Jewish population in Greater Hungary (including recently annexed territories) was approximately 825,000 people. By the end of the war in 1945, only about 255,000 Jews survived within Hungary's borders, meaning more than 550,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. 

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Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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