Blessed is the Match, by Marie Syrkin

This is an incredible book on the countless stories of Jewish Resistance that took place all over the world during World War II.  Nancy Syrkin tells the story of 20 year-old Hanna Senesch who left her country to join the small group of Palestinian parachutists who would illegally drop themselves into German occupied countries in attempts to save as many Jews as possible.  She was captured shortly after she successfully entered Hungary and eventually shot to death.  Her bravery is known throughout Palestine.  The author then tells the stories of other parachutists and of many unknown individuals in many different countries who would risk their lives to fight the injustice of the Jews, their fellow humanity.  These are people and stories that you don't learn about in high school. There was profound Jewish resistance to the Nazis. Underground communication was established with incredible coded phrases and words to communicate the danger of Jews in different countries.

The author describes in detail the insanity of the Nazis and the literally unimaginable acts they would commit to the Jews...things we can't even begin to comprehend.  She describes the tactics the Nazis would use on the Jews so they would voluntarily surrender themselves (unbeknownst to the Jews themselves) like requiring all Jews in the ghettos to come forward for a census to ensure their safety from death...yet really they were the first ones to be put onto the trains to the concentration camps.  

I wonder if I would have been so brave, had I lived during that time, to risk my life to save just one Jew.

Blessed is the match that is consumed 

in kindling flame.

Blessed is the flame that burns

in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop

its beating for honor's sake.

Blessed is the match that is consumed 

in kindling flame.

~Hanna Senesch