Originally an executive with the light bulb company Philips, Jan Zwartendijk became Dutch consul and concocted a secret plan that would ultimately save over 2,000 Jews from the Holocaust. With the help of Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara, Zwartendijk issued thousands of visas to the Dutch colony of Curaçao on the other side of the world, allowing refugees to travel on the Trans-Siberian Express all through Soviet Russia to Vladivostok, and onwards to China. Here Jan Brokken tells their story, and examines the cost that they paid for their heroism.

"Brokken brings these largely unknown men to vivid life, and few readers will come away from the book untouched by their stories. A deeply moving account."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)