Meg Waite Clayton, The Last Train to London: A Novel & Gillian Walnes Perry, The Legacy of Anne Frank

In Conversation with Sharon Douglas, CEO and Board Liaison, The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect

Community Partners: Georgia Commission on the Holocaust; Eternal Life-Hemshech.

MEG WAITE CLAYTON, The Last Train to London: A Novel (BOOK CLUB PICK!)

Meg Waite Clayton conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to 15-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and his best friend, the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents’ carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis’ take control. There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss—Hitler’s annexation of Austria—as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape.

GILLIAN WALNES PERRY, The Legacy of Anne Frank

Although many books and literary analyses have been written about Anne Frank’s life and diary, none have explored the surprising influence she has had on young people in countries all over the world, helping to shape their moral framework and giving them critical life skills. This is due in part to the merits of a travelling exhibition created by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in 1985 which has so far been seen by over 9 million people. The Anne Frank exhibition, along with its innovative educational and cultural activities, has circumnavigated the globe many times.

In this fascinating study, Gillian Walnes Perry explores the various legacies of Anne Frank’s influence. She looks at the complex life of Anne Frank’s father and the motivations that powered his educational philosophy. She shares new insights into the real Anne Frank, personally gifted by those who actually knew her. Global icons such as Nelson Mandela and Audrey Hepburn relate the influence that Anne Frank had on shaping their own lives.

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