Angels of Prague (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781913727543)

The "thrilling and deeply moving" (Valentine Low) true story of a remarkable group of women who risked everything to rescue 15,000 refugees from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War.

October, 1938. Germany is poised to take over part of Czechoslovakia and thousands of terrified refugees have fled to Prague. A mix of Jews and political opponents of the Nazis, they will be killed if they do not leave the country.

The city is soon overwhelmed with people who have no way out and nowhere else to go. With winter drawing in and supplies scarce, the situation is dire.

Doreen Warriner, a British academic studying in Prague, decides she must help. She rallies a group of women and they begin an underground evacuation operation of such astonishing efficiency that over the next ten months they help 15,000 people escape the Nazis and are only forced to stop when World War II breaks out in September 1939.

At the height of her work, Warriner becomes the Gestapo's most urgent target and has to flee the country to save her own life. An American, Martha Sharp, takes over leadership of the group for the final months in a desperate and often tragic race against time.

Drawing on previously unpublished diaries, letters and interviews, Angels of Prague is an intimate and gripping account of an extraordinary true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of courageous women who stood tall in the face of unthinkable danger and deserve to be remembered.

"Gripping and authoritative" Kate Moore