Ida Cook (1904-1986), a British author who wrote 112 romance novels under the name Mary Burchell, also helped 29 Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany in the 1930s. She and her sister, Mary Louise Cook, used their love of opera as cover to travel in Germany, and they smuggled out valuables that allowed Jewish refugees meet Britain's financial security requirements for immigration. Cook funded these operations with proceeds from her romance novels. The sisters were named as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel in 1965. In 2010 they were both honored as a British Hero of the Holocaust by Britain.
Ida Cook's first novel written as Mary Burchell was published in 1936. The most famous of her many works is the Warrender Saga, which heavily incorporates concert halls and operas. Cook co-founded the Romantic Novelists' Association and served as president from 1966 to 1986. In 1950, she wrote a memoir under her real name titled We Followed Our Stars, which was later revised and expanded as Safe Passage. On January 19, 2021, Park Row published another revamped version of Cook's memoir, The Bravest Voices: A Memoir of Two Sisters' Heroism During the Nazi Era ($17.99). --Tobias Mutter
