Eleanor Roosevelt's Christmas Story

 
Above: Christmas: A Story by Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940).

Eleanor's Roosevelt's Christmas is a children's book, but surprisingly dark. It takes place in 1940's Netherlands, during and after the Nazi invasion. 

After losing her father to the war, 7-year-old Marta meets a man outside her home who declares, "There is no Christ Child. That is a story which is told for the weak. It is ridiculous to believe that a little child could lead the people of the world, a foolish idea claiming strength through love and sacrifice. You must grow up and acknowledge only one superior, he who dominates the rest of the world through fear and strength."

The man (most probably a quisling or a Nazi official) offers to take Marta and her struggling mother to a place where they will find food and comfort, as long as they renounce their beliefs. The mother declines, stating: "Where you are, there is power and hate and fear among people, one of another. Here... there is the Christ Child [who] taught love. He drove the money-changers out of the temple, to be sure, but that was because He hated the system which they represented. He loved his family, the poor... I will stay here with my child..."

That is essentially where the book ends, with Marta and her mother resisting the seduction of an easy, but evil comfort. The book is a fascinating glimpse into Eleanor Roosevelt's Christian beliefs, which seem to have been quite strong. A summary of the book, on the inside of the dust jacket, tells us that Eleanor's book "pictures a Christmas Eve in a land in which the happy peaceful days of pre-war times no longer exist; where the greed and the ruthlessly aggressive power of the invader have full control, but a Christmas Eve in which a great faith, love, and hope buoys up the hearts of the conquered even in their greatest distress."

Above: A happy memory for Marta, skating with her mother and father. This is one of several illustrations in the book - drawn by Fritz Kredel, a German artist who fled Nazi Germany in 1938.