“The
world is at the doorstep of a holocaust. It is early May 1940,
and all around me so much is happening every day. Swept up by
events that surge forward like an avalanche, I search with terror
for some meaning to the storm that has swallowed me up…”
So begins Dr. Anna Christake Cornwell’s riveting memoir,
Only the Birds are Free: The Story of a War Child in Greece.
It is a true story based on the real life odyssey of Anna, her
mother, brother, and many other family members and friends living
in Greece during the Nazi-fascist occupation in World War II.
For several years, Anna and her loved ones run from village
to village, hiding from enemy invaders, and attempting to scrape
out even in the slimmest margin of existence in a country devastated
by war and famine.
The struggle has the effect of emboldening Anna, teaching her
hard lessons about the cruelty of oppression and the importance
of choice and freedom. As she comes into her teens, she takes
an active role in the youth liberation movement in Greece, rising
to a leadership position and fighting—literally—for
the ideals she believes in as well as for her life. As a young
woman coming of age amid the horrors of war and as a freedom
fighter, Anna’s life is shaped completely and irrevocably
by this difficult and historic period in world events. Her story,
observations, and deeply felt life lessons move and enlighten
the reader, revealing often-neglected information about the
breadth of the second world war’s effect on humanity while
inspiring an ever deeper appreciation for the glories of freedom
and the remarkable strength of the human spirit.
Its messages are fresh, timely and as relevant today as they
were 50 years ago or will be 50 years from now. The book fulfills
the author’s lifelong commitment to help put an end to
war and to the terrible destruction and anguish it inflicts
upon the people of the world.
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Anna,
on the run from an enemy attack, hid this geography school
book under a rock, and it survived the burning of her
village. |
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Anna Christake Cornwell
"Only The Birds Are Free"
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