Sydney M. Williams
Burrowing into Books
Reviews of Selective Readings
August 21, 2017
“Last Hope Island”
“In less than a month, the British capital had become a haven for the
governments and armed forces of six European countries conquered by Hitler…”
Last Hope Island
Dark clouds that had formed over Europe burst in a maelstrom when Germany invaded Poland on the first of September 1939. Five months earlier, England and France had guaranteed her borders. More than a year earlier, in March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. One year later, in March 1939, in violation of the Munich Agreement, Germany occupied the rump lands of the Czechoslovak Republic.
On September 27, 1939 Poland surrendered. Within months, Denmark and Norway were occupied. In May 1940, Germany invaded western Europe; shortly thereafter Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands surrendered. On June 22 France signed an armistice, which allowed Germany to occupy the northern part of the country, including the Atlantic coastline. A collaborationist government, with its capital in Vichy, assumed power in the south.
After ten months of War, Germany appeared invincible. Alone among the democracies of Europe, stood England. Representatives of the seven countries mentioned in the footnote, along with small contingencies of their armies found their way to England, to “Last Hope Island.” There they established governments in exile, provided troops, pilots to the RAF, and worked with MI6 and SOE (Special Operations Executive) to infiltrate their countries, rally an underground and keep hope alive. Theirs’ are the stories Lynne Olson, author of Citizens of London, Troublesome Young Men and Those Angry Days, tells, ones of of heroism and betrayal, agonizing defeat and finally, victory – at least for those countries that remained in the West.
Much of the book is about exploits of the resistance, bands of brave men and women who sabotaged German troops and equipment and passed on intelligence. Almost 100,000 died or were taken prisoner. Some revisionist historians have questioned the value of the work they performed, claiming that it was “boots on the ground,” mostly American, that finally defeated Hitler. Perhaps so, but in May 1945, General Eisenhower wrote to SOE head Colin Gubbins: “In no previous war, and in no other theater during this war, have resistance forces been so closely harnessed to the main military effort.” Air Chief Marshall Arthur Tedder echoed his words: “Its (specifically French resistance forces) greatest victory was that it kept the flame of the French spirit burning throughout the dark years of the occupation.”
Readers will be awed by the bravery of everyday people who fought to rid their countries of brutal oppressors. The book will also bring tears of rage about those abandoned for political reasons. We learn of the long game played by Churchill. Sitting between Roosevelt and Stalin at Tehran in March 1943, Churchill later recalled: “Here I sat, with the great Russian bear on one side of me with paws outstretched, and, on the other side, the great American buffalo. Between the two sat the poor little English donkey.”
One of the books most poignant passages deals with the Warsaw uprising. With their armies at the gates, the Soviets allowed the massacre of the Poles by the Wehrmacht. Churchill and Roosevelt understood that to defeat Hitler required a compact with the devil, Stalin – a man as evil as Hitler. The Soviet Union had borne the brunt of civilian and battle deaths. Their reward was Eastern Europe – seven countries, plus East Germany, with a population of almost three hundred million people, all destined to live another 45 years under a police state.
Her story is one of people from different nations that stood together against tyranny and oppression. Ultimately victory was theirs, and freer and more democratic societies emerged, at least for those in the West. Ms. Olson quotes the writer Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, Holland’s most decorated resistance fighter: “We stood together, we died together, brothers and sisters in the classic sense.” “What meaning.” Ms. Olson adds, “could the War have if it did not result in radical change in society, leading to a more just and equal world?” That it did for the West, but not for the East.
The book ends with a call for unification. But I suspect that is, as Hamlet put it, “a consummation devoutly to be wished.” Reality suggests Europe will always be more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. But that does not have to portend war and division. Cultural and societal distinctions are innate; they are ancient, and difficult to abandon. What is needed is tolerance, respect, and an understanding of one another’s history, cultural differences and boundaries. We do not have to be brothers in blood to live peacefully. In countries ruled by laws, peace can be based on civility and deference.
Lynne Olson has done a masterful job in bringing to light events hidden by time – irritating, in terms of bureaucratic in-fighting that too often proved deadly, but inspirational in what they say about the character of those who when faced with annihilation stayed and fought for their countries against terrific odds. With “Last Hope Island” as their refuge and guiding light, men and women of the resistance fought in fields and on farms, as well as in villages and cities, to rid their countries of Nazi tyranny. This is their story.
 The six countries were Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg and Norway. The seventh was France, represented not by government officials, but by a junior general officer who came, in time, to represent France – Charles de Gaulle.
 Exact numbers are impossible to determine, but estimates are that total Soviet Union casualties during the Second World War amounted to about 13% of their pre-War population. That would compare to 0.94% for the United Kingdom and 0.34% for the U.S. Germany’s, for comparative purposes, were just over 8%. Poland suffered the most, with total casualties of about 17%.