Eye-opening tale of unsung wartime heroine

Esther’s Children by Caroline Beecham, Allen & Unwin, $36.99

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Esther's story is a the story of wartime heroine Esther Simpson.

Esther Simpson was born in 1903, the daughter of Lithuanian-Jewish refugees. Esther and her brother flourished in England, both graduating from university, Esther, an accomplished musician as well as fluent in three languages.

She died in 1996, 93 years old.

Caroline Beecham has written Esther's story. Her version falls into the genre of historical fiction, but Beecham makes it clear that dates, events and governments edicts are accurate.

Historical fiction is really an event or person of another time written as the author's version, entailing much research. Here then is Beecham's version of Esther's story.

After university Esther took a position as a nanny in Austria. Here she learnt to speak fluent German and through her music, being an accomplished violinist, made several friends becoming a welcome addition to various classical music groups.

Shortly after her time in Vienna rumours started circulating about the Nazi propaganda creeping into Austria under Hitler's influence.

Prominent Jewish folk, mainly academics at this stage, were stripped from their positions in universities and research programmes.

Esther was appalled, witnessing the distress caused to many of her friends. She returned to Britain and began working there for a society formerly named Council for At Risk Academics. Their aim was to secure positions at British universities and assist Jewish academics, stripped of their posts in Austria and Germany, gain employment and a life in Britain.

Because of her time in Austria, her fluent German and knowledge of the people and the country, Esther was responsible for hundreds of Jewish refugees and their families obtaining sanctuary in England, among them later, at least four Nobel prize winners.

On one of her earlier visits to Vienna she fell in love with another musician. Initially he was reluctant to leave his family but circumstances finally necessitated their departure.

Esther Simpson continued as the stalwart of their society, writing thousands of letters and working tirelessly to find placements for these displaced Jewish academics.

Caroline Beecham's story of Esther and her children as she called them is compelling reading. It is well researched and illustrates the thinking of people at that time. All her historical facts are accurate, but for the sake of telling Esther's story she has fictionalised a romance that would be feasible but probably did not happen. It does however add a dimension to the story.

In a way Esther Simpson was a Schindler without the movie and the publicity. If I had not read Caroline Beecham's novel I would have been ignorant about her work and the hundreds of people who would have been exterminated in Dachau or other concentration camps without her and the society's work.

When I got to the end I had to go to Wikipedia to read as much as I could find about Esther Simpson, always a mark of involvement.

All kudos to Caroline Beecham for opening my eyes and hopefully other readers to an unsung heroine. —