(I don't really consider telling you that they were captured by the Nazis to be a spoiler as the title of the book tells you they went to Auschwitz... but be warned I'm not going to bother with the spoiler html, m'kay?)

Amsterdam is where we are with the story of the Brilleslijper family: sisters Janny and Lien, their husbands, their brother and their parents - all were outspoken against the Nazi regime and all were targets due to their activities. They fed people who couldn't get food, hid everyone who asked and even ran an underground press. The sisters would hide the Resistance newspapers under the babies in the pram. Janny even once faked labor to get out of an interrogation. They were a very brave family.

Eventually the pressure from the authorities became too much. Friends impressed upon them the urgency to find a new situation and so the entire family moved into a country house named The High Nest in March 1943. There were some Nazi sympathizers near but enough forest and grounds to insulate them from prying eyes. The owners of the house knew of five individuals officially in residence but unofficially there were usually twenty to twenty-five people living there. Contacts gave the family extra ration cards and they tried to conceal how much food they bought, even establishing two different milk runs. Some keen-eyed shopkeepers cottoned on but kept their mouths shut. Their brother Jaap built in cabinetry or false walls in most rooms as hiding spots and he even did a small underground tunnel but never took that very far.

It was a "Jew Hunter" that found them. Janny and Lien were highly sought after and the man received an extra bounty for the capture. The families were broken up but the sisters were kept together and they passed through several camps: Westerbork, Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz. Along the way they became friendly with another pair of Dutch sisters, Margot and Anne Frank, and their mother Edith. The four girls looked out for each other, sharing food and a bunk. Janny and Lien were there until the very end for Margot and Anne and gave them as much dignity in death as they could manage. And that's not saying much. Janny and Lien almost did not survive. They were terribly ill for a very, very long time after the liberation.

I had not read an account of anyone who had been with the Frank family in the camps and that was very interesting. The camp section of the telling is very bleak. Very graphic about lice and bodies, disease and lost of spirit. It's not necessarily fun reading but it is very educational and I think it's important to know history. I'm glad I read it but am not likely to re-read. Would recommend if you are interested in the subject matter. ( )

Een hooggeprezen boek, en ik begrijp ook wel waarom, maar mijn oordeel is toch niet onverdeeld positief. Van Iperen weet namelijk niet precies wat ze wil met dit boek c.q. er is geen focus. Zij is de bewoonster van het huis Het hooge nest uit 1900 en wil er de geschiedenis van schrijven. Het is gebouwd door Dirk Witte en de uitvoerige inleiding over hem is grotendeels irrelevant en ook bekend. Het verhaal van Het hooge nest als onderduikadres is werkelijk fascinerend. De joodse zusters Brilleslijper, hun familie, aanhang en vrienden uit onderduik en verzet worden uitstekend beschreven en is en het is onbegrijpelijk hoe zij met zijn allen, soms wel 20 personen, maanden en maanden in dit grote huis in het Gooi konden onderduiken totdat zij werden verraden en bijna allemaal opgepakt. Wat zag Nederland er toen nog anders uit en hoe kan oorlog toch ook minder totaal zijn dan je je tegenwoordig voorstelt! Ook de details over ritselen en regelen, verraad en ontsnappingen zijn fascinerend. Maar daarna wil van Iperen ook nog eigenlijk de hele Holocaust beschrijven: alle vreselijke kampervaringen, alles over Anne Frank met wie de zusters inderdaad in één kamp gezeten hebben, en nog veel meer. Alles vol algemene feiten over oorlog en Jodenvervolging die thuishoren in de publicaties van het Niod (en daar ook uit komen). Het soms documentaire karakter van gedeelten wringt met de talloze, zogenaamd letterlijk weergegeven, gesprekken en gedachten die bij een historische roman passen. Veel gebeurtenissen worden gebracht met een zo gratuite uitbarsting van verontwaardiging, hoe terecht die ook is, dat het gaat irriteren. Alsof ik zelf niet snap hoe verschrikkelijk en mensonwaardig het allemaal was! Ik vind dat ze beter had kunnen ophouden bij het verraad en oppakken van de bewoners van het Hooge nest tot en met hun deportatie naar Duitsland, met een vrij korte epiloog over de afloop (de zusters zelf overleefden het). Maar het centrale deel blijft erg mooi. ( )

Indrukwekkend boek over twee Joodse zussen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Ze maken deel uit van het verzet en proberen uit handen van de Duitsers te blijven. Ze vinden 't Hooge Nest, een villa in het Gooi. Daar bieden ze onderdak aan andere Joden. Uiteindelijk worden ze toch ontdekt. De zussen blijven bij elkaar als ze worden afgevoerd naar Westerbork en uiteindelijk Bergen-Belsen. Daar leven ze samen met Anne en Margot Frank. Lien en Janny overleven de oorlog en worden herenigd met hun gezinnen. ( )

Janny and Lien Brilleslijper reside in Amsterdam, and thrive by living vibrantly and creatively. They and their families love being part of a few artistic communities, and get to meet many talented people. When the nazis invade, no one knows what to expect but they are forced to learn quickly.

These two incredibly brave and smart Jewish sisters help fellow Jews in The Netherlands during WWII with assistance from their family and large number of friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish. They work with a network of resisters to create fake ID's, find safe hiding places, and buy food and medicine for many Jews being hunted down. Their beloved younger brother Jaap a brilliant tinkerer/inventor creates a bicycle radio so they can keep up with news about the war and the approach of the allies.

When they themselves needed to flee Amsterdam, they were extremely fortunate to find, at the 11th hour, the beautiful and large High Nest home in the forest where they manage to keep their family together, and hide many others while continuing their resistance work. Jaap builds hide-a-way areas within the house in case strangers arrive. To manage the fear and anxiety the family hold picnics, and worked on small entertaining productions.

The Sisters from Auschwitz introduces us to the incredibly strong, resourceful and loving Brilleslijper family, their unclouded moral compass guiding the extraordinary efforts they expended on helping friends and acquaintances during the Holocaust, despite the utmost risks.

Excellent, beautiful and moving read.

This is the true story of the Brilleslijper sisters whose indomitable spirit and courage carried them through the years leading up to World War II, and beyond. Both were deeply involved with the Dutch resistance effort. As the situation in The Netherlands became more and more dangerous for Jews with the Nazi presence, they knew they had to move out of Amsterdam. They found a home called The High Nest, in a remote area. They hoped to live there safely, unnoticed, until the war ended.
The author of this book bought the home called The High Nest, in 2012, with the intention of restoring it to its former glory. As she learned of the home’s history and the families that lived there, she knew she had to investigate to find out more. That began a labor of love and years of extensive research. Using documents and oral interviews, she pieced together one of the most completely definitive descriptions of Hitler’s diabolical plans.
She follows the path of the sisters and many of those who were involved in their resistance effort, and later on, their effort to survive. The details presented are expansive and often difficult to take in because of the diabolical nature of Hitler’s plans. No matter how much one has read about The Holocaust, this book will inform them of even more of the Nazi’s barbarism. I believe evil truly existed at that time, as friend and neighbor turned in Jews to what they knew would be uncertain death or hardship for their own personal gain. They simply viewed the Jews as less than human or undeserving. Perhaps they were motivated by greed and jealousy, for even after the war’s end, many were still cruel to the few that survived and returned. This is not to imply that all of the Dutch were evil or complicit, but it is to imply that protestations of ignorance are untrue and the sound of silence against Hitler was deafening.
As the Jews were marched to cattle cars, there were witnesses. As they were transferred from place to place, and marched through the street, frail and beaten , often near death, they turned away and pretended not to notice what was right in front of their eyes. To deny knowledge was simply to lie about it. It went on for years in plain sight.
The sisters and their husbands created hiding spaces in The High Nest home. They had failsafe warning systems, which they rehearsed, to keep all of them safe from the clutches of the Germans. Unfortunately, as my mother used to say, man plans, G-d laughs. Eventually, they were betrayed and captured. While they were free, ignoring their own safety, they offered safety to those in danger, They arranged to have false documents made to enable others to escape, and they were also couriers for those same documents. Their experiences before, during, and after the war are so well documented in this book, that it becomes a definitive study of the fear and horror of the Holocaust, from the torture, to the roll calls, to the gas chambers and the crematoria, nothing is left out. The living conditions are described fully and the humiliation and suffering are palpable on every page so that sometimes one has to pause and take a breath. One has to go on, though, because this is not fantasy, it is real and we cannot forget.
Forced to dig their own graves, forced to stand naked in front of leering men, forced to take showers in what were really gas chambers, forced to live in lice ridden, overcrowded substandard conditions, forced to starve and witness the brutality of others as they were tortured and laughed at, forced to work until they collapsed in all sorts of deplorable conditions, they often lost hope because no one was coming to their rescue, though they were innocent of crimes. They had been sacrificed.
This is a detailed account of what took place during Hitler’s rise to power, and thank G-d, his fall from grace. The author has a gift of putting words on the page that bring the reader right to the places she writes about, from the ghetto, to The High Nest, to Auschwitz, to freedom. Unfortunately, many of these places are not places any of us would want to be, and reading about it is hard, but necessary. The women knew Dr. Mengele, they were there when Anne Frank and her sister died. They lived through the most inhumane time of our history.
The narrator of this book is extraordinary. The subject is really difficult and the events are very brutal, yet she never interjected her own emotions into the reading, rather, with just the right amount of expression, she told their story. It was almost a clinical, scientific explanation of tragic events from which there was no escape. ( )