One more forgery, a copy of an exquisite Vermeer, and the Nazis will pay for the rescue of the very children they are trying annihilate. Isa sells her beautiful forgery to none other than Hitler himself, and on the way to the auction, discovers that Truus is part of a resistance ring working to smuggle Jewish babies out of Amsterdam.īut Truus cannot save more children without money. She sells them a fake-a Rembrandt copy drawn by her talented father-a sale that sets Isa perilously close to the second most hated class of people in Amsterdam: the collaborators. So, when the unpaid taxes threaten her beloved but empty gallery, Isa decides to make the Nazis pay. And masterpiece by masterpiece, the Nazis are buying and stealing her country’s heritage, feeding the Third Reich’s ravenous appetite for culture and art. The “degenerate” art of the Gallery de Smit is confiscated, the artists in hiding or deported, and her best friend, Truus, flees to join the shadowy Dutch resistance. With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make.Isa de Smit was raised in the vibrant, glittering world of her parents’ small art gallery in Amsterdam, a hub of beauty, creativity, and expression, until the Nazi occupation wiped the color from her city’s palette. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania's house for the German army.

Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Izio's brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio - a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.īut everything changes when the German army invades Przemysl. It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemysl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make. The extraordinary story of Stefania Podgórska, a Polish teenager who chose bravery and humanity by hiding thirteen Jews in her attic during WWII, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sharon Cameron - now a Reese's Book Club YA Pick!

The light in hidden places