When the Germans invade her city, Rachel Klein is a teenager falling in love. Within a year, she’s delivering illegal papers and confronting Nazi soldiers. In this “compelling and touching tale” (Laurel Corona), Rachel finds her courage and faces wrenching choices. A Kirkus Indie Book of the Month.Follow Rachel Klein as she faces double danger as a young Jewish woman and resistance worker in … worker in the Amsterdam of Anne Frank.
On May 10, 1940, the Nazi bombers blast the night and shatter Rachel Klein’s sleep – along with her life as she knew it. She’s eighteen, and falling in love with a Gentile in a secret relationship. As the Nazi terror escalates, her romance deepens quickly, and so does her boyfriend’s involvement with student protests. Soon, he must disappear rather than face arrest. When Rachel witnesses the first roundup of 425 Jewish men in the Jonas Daniel Meijerplein, she knows that she too must act, and joins the resistance.
Despite the ever greater danger as the Nazis tighten their grip on the city, Rachel makes daily deliveries of illegal papers to addresses all over Amsterdam. She ingeniously evades the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators for months, although she has some close calls. As the roundups intensify, Rachel agonizes about whether to go into hiding. Ultimately she persuades her parents to accompany her to a dank basement, where she gets to know herself and them in a different way, and meets a new man.
A young woman can find her courage in any situation, no matter how terrible, and love is always a possibility.
A Kirkus Indie Book of the Month
Winner, Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction
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I fell in love with 18-year-old Rachel, the protagonist in Mary Dingee Fillmore’s AN ADDRESS IN AMSTERDAM. Time and time again—even when the outcome could have meant prison or death—she did the right thing. And though this is a work of fiction (based on many actual events), the storyline begs the question: Will you collude, collaborate, or resist? The choice is before each of us every day when we encounter someone different from us. It might be ethnicity, skin color, spiritual tradition, academic or socioeconomic, gender identity, the list goes on. I highly recommend this 5-star book!
In keeping with the very best historical fiction, AN ADDRESS IN AMSTERDAM deftly tells a breathtaking and suspenseful story while also illuminating a specific historical period. Mary Dingee Fillmore’s story of a young Jewish woman working with the underground resistance in Amsterdam during WWII educated and enlightened me about that time and place, and it did so with skilled storytelling, fully-drawn characters, and beautiful, fresh prose. I am left with a story I will never forget and also renewed awareness of the dangers we face today if we allow prejudice and bigotry a foothold in our societies. It CAN happen again—if we let it. Reading this beautiful book and thinking about its many messages will help us assure that it never does.
In her book, An Address in Amsterdam, author Mary Dingee Filmore, beautifully captures the life and fall of this city as the Nazi movement emerges. This beautifully written novel draws the reader into the characters capturing their reactions, fears, and survival at a time of fear, cruelty, and turmoil. Rachel, the central character, and her parents move from denial to survival mode as they realize they are trapped in a world of never before witnessed cruelty. The characters are richly developed and the story is gripping, powerful, and moving. I dreamt about this book after I had finished reading it proving how the characters did and will stay with me. I strongly recommend this as a book that will educate the reader on how and why the Nazi party was able to assume control. It also illustrates the courage and bravery of those that fought against them risking their lives on a daily basis.
Wonderful novel by Mary Fillmore! I so enjoyed learning about the Dutch resistance during WWII through the eyes of Fillmore’s main character, Rachel. Though heart-wrenching at times, I enjoyed going back to this world each night, eager to find out what would happen to Rachel and her family. A wonderful testament to so many who lost their lives, and an important novel for today. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Have you ever flat out badgered your friends to read a book? My turn to pick for my book club doesn’t come up for another six months. So, I am twisting arms to get somebody else to pick An Address in Amsterdam.
Beginning with the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 and continuing into the period of hiding in May 1943 this story of a Jewish girl who has to grow up fast, her father who persists in believing the best about the Germans, and her mother who sees it all and loves them both.
How does the author maintain so much suspense in this historical novel from the early 1940s in Amsterdam? I mean, we all read Anne Frank’s Diary, didn’t we? We already know what happened. Yet Mary Dingee Filmore’s book is the proverbial page turner. Read it!
This appealed to my love for the World War II era. The characters were well written and the storyline was eye-opening.
Rich Sensuality in a Frightening Time– An Address in Amsterdam
An historical novel taking place during the brutal Nazi Germany and World War II era, An Address in Amsterdam is a heroine’s journey as well as, a love story with a Gentile boy. Filled with rich sensuality on the part of its 18-year old heroine, Rachel Klein, the trauma and frightening uncertainty living under a ferocious authoritarianism do not undermine the young woman’s courage, optimism, and hope for a benign regime. Reading it in 2017 gives the story more context concerning how citizens are rendered inert and helpless in the face of an overwhelming crisis.
Rachel Klein, the eighteen-year old protagonist has a sense of goodness in life that will break your heart. I loved her and you will too!
This is one of those books that you just can’t put down. I was immediately swept up in Rachel’s life as the Nazis began snaking their way throughout Amsterdam to the denial and disbelief of many, including her own father. Rachel’s reaction and subsequent heroic actions are those that we all hope we would take if we were witness to such heinous times. Thoroughly researched, beautifully written, this novel will keep you up late at night and leave you deep in thought long after you finish the last stunning paragraph.
Good historical novel.
Books about the Jewish experience under Hitler are tragically relevant these days.
This book was interesting. I realize it is fiction but is based on reality and in that way it was informative. Reading about this time in history is the only way one can process it.
It had some history.
Amazing how many Jews just didn’t believe that Hitler would do anything dangerous to them. Oh, what a price they paid. Great reading!
A book hard to put down. The characters are exquisitely drawn and gives one a real appreciation for how much suffering the Jews endured during WWII.
Great perspective of life during WWII.
Have read many books on the Holocaust, there is always something more to learn. Am glad I read the book.
Awful writing
If you have an interest in how families survived during the Nazi rule. This is a good book. You feel you know the people in the book and your hopes are on their survival.
I enjoyed the book a lot but felt it left you hanging.
Thin plot with little depth. Characters and their dialogue are predictable and elementary. I was wondering if this was written for teens.