By Kathleen Bailey

I’m a passionate reader of Christian fiction, across several genres – historical, contemporary, Amish. But there’s one that will cause me to save the others for later; The Second World War.

We are living in a Golden Age for World War II Fiction.

Raised in postwar America, I knew firsthand how the returning GI’s Didn’t Talk About It. They wanted to get on with their lives, partly to forget, partly because the 50’s were booming. They wanted to see the USA in a Chevrolet and watch Ed Sullivan, and we wanted to let them. My friend’s father spent time in a POW camp, but never told stories. A neighbor lost both legs, walking with two prosthetics, and we never asked him about it. Even my father never talked about the war, and he had a desk job on a base in England. If our parents watched the Nuremberg Trials, they did it after we went to bed. We planted a tree in Israel, we read Anne Frank, but our knowledge of the Holocaust and its fallout ended on the steps to the hiding place.

Why now, one 80 years have passed? When the last of the soldiers, sailors, and Marines hang to life by a silken thread?

Perhaps those 80 years have given us perspective. We’ve been through several other wars, for both good and poor reasons, with atrocious results. We’ve seen more of what human beings can do to each other, whatever their motivation. And for whatever reason, what survivors are left are ready to talk.

Join us today on Pages of my Life, while Kathleen Bailey tells us about her love of WWII novels. Share on X

The stories are coming out now, as elderly Holocaust survivors and the last of the GI’s finally speak about what they’ve seen. We look at what our grandfather4s and grandmothers were able to accomplish and marvel. And we grab at these stories before it’s too late.

I discovered World War II fiction with the Zion Chronicles and the Zion Covenant series, by Brock and Bodie Thoene. Their novels swept over the known world, from Paris to London to Berlin to the Old City in Jerusalem, with star-crossed lovers, American Journalists, conflicted German officers, and haunted, hunted Jews. When you were done with the Zion books, you knew. The series remains among my favorites for its scope and its relentless pointing toward the Savior.

The latest crop of World War II writers are also mining that period for stories about how the human spirit triumphed in the darkest of modern times. It was the worst of time and it was the worst of times, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, except when good people rose up to do what they could. Though Sarah Sundin was already a World War II star with her trilogies about American service people, she dug even deeper to pen (or keyboard) stunning tales of the Resistance. In stories like “Until the Leaves Fall in Paris,” she gives us a portrait of two hunted people, who survive and reunite only by the grace of God.

Lynn Austin gave us “If I Were You,” a deeply satisfying novel about the war and postwar period. Tricia Gouer wrote the World War II Liberator series, and Cathy Gohlke wrote “The Medallion”. Karen Kingsbury used her gifts to produce “Just Once”. And there are others.

I like anything about the French Resistance — France may have initially caved, but when they Resisted they did it mightily. I’m fascinated by the Channel Islands and how they had to live, work, and nearly starve under German occupation. I love reading or watching anything about England in the war. I’m hooked by the fact that virtually every segment of the British population found something to do to stave off Hitler — the Land Girls, the people who took in other people’s kids, the Women’s Institute making jam, the humblest of air raid wardens. Dunkirk! And don’t get me started on the King’s Speech. They were truly the Greatest Greatest Generation.

As we face our own uncertain times, we need to learn from the Holocaust, the Resistance, the Battle for Britain, and the brave people who stood in the gap. W need to lear for ourselves, and we need to pass this knowledge down to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these “ordinary” heroes. Christian fiction is one of the best ways to get there and to say, “Never again”.

 

My father worked as a code breaker in WWII. When victory was declared in Europe, he was the first one to the teletype machine. He kept that telegram all his life. My nephew has the original with all Dad’s other war stuff. This Gives Me Chills. They knew what they were doing, and they knew the cost. Even in the codebreakers office.

My father, Alfred Perron, in his uniform for his job with the U.S. Army codebreakers.

The King’s Speech

 

 

 

Kathleen Bailey is a journalist and novelist with 40 years’ experience in the nonfiction, newspaper and inspirational fields. Born in 1951, she was a child in the 50s, a teen in the 60s, a young adult in the 70s and a young mom in the 80s. She’s enjoyed every minute of it and written about most of it.

Bailey’s work includes both historical and contemporary fiction, with an underlying thread of men and women finding their way home, to Christ and each other. Her first Pelican/White Rose book, ‘‘Westward Hope,” was published in September 2019. This was followed by a novella, “The Logger’s Christmas Bride,” in December 2019 as part of Pelican’s Christmas Extravaganza novella collection.  Her second full-length novel, “Settler’s Hope,” was released July 17, 2020. Her Christmas novella, “The Widow’s Christmas Miracle,” was published Dec. 1, also part of Pelican Book Group’s Christmas Extravaganza.

She lives in New Hampshire with her husband David. They have two grown daughters.