Apparent from the very first few pages, THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES promised to be one of the best stories of the year. So many tales of a monstrously evil time in our lives with the Holocaust or Shoah. You might wonder why there are two names associated with the extermination of six million Jewish souls. Holocaust includes the word of sacrifice in its definition. Jews were not a sacrifice. They were a targeted group of people as citizens of Poland, Hungary, France, and Germany. Within a very short amount of time, they were stripped of their citizenry, property, human rights and ultimately their lives. There are so many stories of the atrocities cast upon men, women, and children who by nature of their religious beliefs became enemies of the state. It was scary the way survivors managed to live and move to North America, South America or Israel, while trying to alert people by inserting a simple phrase into society – Never Again. Never Forget. Unfortunately, we must face the fact that there are still those who would not hesitate to label a group of people – citizens – as others once again. It is happening in 2021. I can only hope that, by reading books like THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES by Kristin Harmel, folks remember that monstrous time in the 1940s in Europe and stand against it recurring here in America and elsewhere.

You know it is going to be a powerful read when a story grabs at your gut almost immediately. Pulled from actual events Kristin Harmel constructs a vivid tale about what lengths brave folk go to save other people. Assisting those required to wear the yellow star came with danger. But those that stepped up to the challenge and faced the consequences of their actions were heroes to the souls that they saved.

The odds against them they had the intellect to design ways to stymie the evil forces as best they could since they were so outnumbered. But try they did. In THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES, we are told of one such valiant effort to save many Jews. This is Eva Traube Abrams, story to tell. Eva is now a semi-retired librarian who, after six decades, finds herself facing the events of her past exploits in Nazi Germany.

It was an ingenious plot to foil Hitler’s goal to obliterate Jewish life. Falsified documents gave the hunted a means to leave – and hopefully end up in a more humane place. Eva was a young woman when she and Remy created these documents. But Eva was concerned with the future of those they helped vanish. How would they find their families? How would their families find them? Thus, THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES was conceived. Again, ingeniously in a religious text embedded with codes to the people they helped.

Eva begins as a relatively naïve young woman who clings onto vague optimism facing the initial challenge to find her father. What Eva finds would destroy most people but there is an inner strength in Eva that she never acknowledges. It is that strength, the aid of a few good men, talent as an artist, and guts, that provide the stimulus to work toward a lofty goal.

Many years after the war, a man looked to return lost volumes to their rightful owners. It’s a huge task considering that many owners perished at the hands of the murderers of the Third Reich. Eva noticed in the news article a picture of her book. After all these years Eva, now in her eighties, has to decide how she can retrieve it, and just what lives could be impacted by the names listed.

Have I captured your attention yet? Well, I was hooked by the beginning of chapter one. Kristin Harmel moved me to tears as I traveled page by page through this wonderful expose on the heroic steps taken to save human beings virtually being hunted down. THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES is a captivating read. Kristin Harmel once again captures the very essence of a time that we would all like to forget ever happened. But we must not ever forget. Lives hang in the balance.