The Evaders: True Stories of Downed Canadian Airmen and Their Helpers in World War II

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force made a signal
contribution to victory. Bomber and transport crews and fighter pilots
served in the tens of thousands. Many died in action, shot down over
Nazi-occupied Europe. But some of those who were downed survived, and
although most were quickly snapped up by the Germans, some managed to
come into contact with resistance organizations. Some of these Canadians
in turn were captured, but others were hidden, passed down various
escapees’ chains, and eventually made their way back to freedom. This
book treats the experiences of the airmen who evaded, but it also talks
feelingly about the enormously courageous Dutch, Belgian, and French men
and women who risked their lives to help Allied fliers. Resistance
workers could be shot out of hand and their families might well suffer
the same fate, but these people, appalled by the Nazis’ tyranny and
desperate to restore their nations’ freedom, helped nonetheless.
Courage of this sort deserves commemoration, and this book, a pastiche
of interviews and accounts, serves its purpose well.