The Eric Metaxas Show - Amanda Barratt

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

Amanda Barratt has a thrilling new historical novel, "Within These Walls of Sorry," which reveals the true story of how pharmacists in Poland saved the lives of Jewish people trapped by Nazi oppression.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least to make it a double or triple line. Now here's your line jumping host, Eric Mattaxas.

Folks, due to a technical difficulty, Victoria Jackson is still on the program. I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do about it. Vicki, let's just keep going. That was funny. Well, that was funny. I have all this excitement because, well, you only just asked me to be on yesterday,

so I didn't, like, prepare. But it occurred to me. It's been a long time, like, for no reason. I just thought, for crying out loud. Like, you know, I just love talking to you. You're just fun. But you also bring substance. So, yeah.

I mean, I just thought, let's talk about anything that's going on in your life. Well, see, people should understand that I'm dressed like this because I'm reading heavy things like Hope in the 11th hour was written by my pastor, Sarah Berger. I'm reading that and it's about death. Okay, death. Now wait. Now wait. Sarah Berger, whom I know, because I spoke at their church in Leeper's Fork, when they were still there,

they're not there anymore. But Sarah Berger wrote a beautiful book. You just had it in your hands. And we had her on this program. And she talks about the death of her son and dealing with grief from a biblical perspective. And we have that on our Rumble channel. And so a lot of people on this program are familiar with that. It's a wonderful book. She and her husband, Steve, they are really wonderful people. And I know they live not too far from you. But I'm glad you're still friends. I'm glad that you're hanging out with cool people. Well, so I just wanted to explain. I read heavy stuff.

My friend just sent me, have you ever heard of Amir Sarfadi? Amir Sarfadi? I think that's a typo. I don't think that's right. No, he lives in Israel, and he's a Christian, and he knows all the, this is about revelation, and I've never really understood revelation.

It sounds like an LSD trip. Wait, you mean the Bible? The book of Revelation. Yeah, yeah, the book of rel. So you see, my brain is full of these heavy things like Revelation and heaven and sodomy. So I overcompensate with... Revelation and heaven and sodomy. Those three popular topics.

We can't get enough of them. Bubble gum, bubbles, stripes, coconuts. Just so I can't, you know, you can't just keep talking negative, negative, negative. Oh, I want to say something positive. I dare you. That is so hard. You can't even make a bubble. Don't chew them on the program.

We frown on that here because there are many children that watch and listen to this program. And by the way, when you said what you're wearing, you know, for people who are listening on radio, let me just say you're wearing a lovely organza gown. And I see there's a corsage. and the pearls are to die for, my goodness, that must be an heirloom. But anyway, that's just for the people on the radio who can't see that, and they can't see that I'm wearing a Phyllis Diller wig because they're listening on radio. But you please continue.

Oh, that's funny. Okay, so I want to say something positive. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Not ringing any bells. Is that a friend of yours? I saw her speech, her rebuttal. She's so fantastic. Days ago, after the state of the union, she was given the, you know, prime spot to give the rebuttal.

And wasn't she fantastic? My goodness. Superstar! And the beauty of the peace and the joy of the Holy Spirit come out of her face and love. And she's smart. And she, I'm so proud. of her. Oh, I have to. And she's, and she's the new governor of Arkansas. Ladies and gentlemen, she's the new governor of Arkansas. How wonderful is that? Talk about hope. Oh, I have to plug one more

person. Plug away. Please, please go ahead. Let me just guess. Is it, uh, it? Well, and I can't guess. Who is it? Well, John Lovitz used to say, plug away. Uh, anyway. Anyway, um, um, My daughter, who's 37, today. Happy birthday. She is a writer, and Lifeway publishes her Christian books and workbooks. And I don't have one in my hand. Wait, what do you mean workbooks? I don't understand.

Tell us your daughter's name because she's married. Her name is Scarlett with one T. and Sarah Huggabee Sanders' daughter is Scarlett with two T's. Does Scarlet have a last name? Yes, Hiltabital. H-I-L. What?

It's German like you. Scarlet. You know, you're great, too. Scarlet, H-T-Bital. H-I-L. H-T-Bital. See how you interrupt? H-T-Bital.

H-L. T-L. B-I-D-A-L. Hiltabital. Okay, Scarlett Hiltabital, your daughter, 37, writes books, and what do you mean workbooks? I don't understand. Well, they're for Bible studies. Her latest book is called, You're the Worst Person in the World.

I would love to hold it up, but it's in my other place. If you could, like, put a picture of it, you're the worst person in the world by Scarlet Hiltabite. And basically it's about Romans 323, Romans 623. And she writes these books. Her last one was about anxiety. It was called Afraid of All the Things. And there's a workbook that goes with it for Bible studies called Anxious. And now she's working on the workbook for you're the worst person in the world.

Would she write a workbook based on my book letter to the American Church? I think somebody needs to write, you know, a workbook for that. Yes! But she better hurry up because it's getting bad. Yeah, so I'm really proud of her. I don't think of her as the first person to plug because that would be like, you know, what do you call that when you hire your son and then you... It's called nepotism.

Did you consider that an interruption that I answered your question? Nepotism. Scarlett Hiltabital. Not nepotism. Yeah. Right. I'm really proud that her whole life is telling the gospel, and she does it with a humor. And, yeah, so she's an author now, and she's got those books.

Yeah, so I keep pretty busy being old. You know, I'm in a lot of Bible studies. I have one at my house. You're such a phony. That's why I'm interrupting you. You're not old, and you're pretty busy. playing this game, playing this role. Like you're really old. You're not old.

You're just a couple of years older than me. You're full of baloney and I'm calling you out. I'm calling you out right now. Eric, you are young and wonderful and you've got to stop playing that game. And you're funny and brilliant. How many miles can you run? Eric, how many miles can I run before I drop dead?

I don't know. Why do you ask that? How many miles do you run? Well, typically I run four miles. Okay, I went on a really long walk yesterday for an hour because I love exercise. I used to be a gymnast. We can get into that at another show. I can't run.

My hips are old. Wait a minute. They've done so many flip-flop. Tons of people that I know have hip operations and replacements because they say that's what happens. And they say that's one of the easiest operations do it. The convalescence is super quick. And I know tons of people who have had that operation. people. I know Paul had it.

Yeah, but I mean, so just do that and stop the bologna. You could run as far as you want. You don't, you know, hey, I just came up with an aphorism or an aphorism. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. That's an ancient Greek proverb, and I just came up with it. So if you want to exercise, you have to start slow. I do exercise. It just hurts my hips.

Right, but you're going to have to get that taken care of. But it used to not hurt my handspring on a four-inch board. Listen to me, because I've had it with you. Albin, we're cutting her off. This is it. I don't care about technical difficulties. When you come back, we're going to, we do have to go. Vicki, I love you.

And I'm just, we will just have you back soon to continue this conversation. And, but give my love to Paul. Thank you. Thank him for writing that thing and writing it. I have to get that up and post that on my social media. We're at a time. Vicki, we love you. God bless you. Goodbye. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it.

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Just go to patriotmobile.com slash Eric. PatriotMobil.com slash Eric or call them at 878 Patriot. Get free activation today with the offer code Eric. Folks, as promised, we have back on the program, the author. Amanda Barrett. Amanda, welcome back. Thank you so much, Eric. It's a joy to be here again. Listen, you're very young and yet you've written a number of beautiful, important books. We've talked about them on this program. One of them, my dearest Dietrich about Dietrich Bonhofer, with whom I have some familiarity. And then the White Rose resists, again, about the resistance to the Nazis by Christians in Germany at the time. You have now written another book. The title of it is Within These Walls of Sorrow, a novel of World War II, Poland.

you've gotten a lot of praise for this brand new book. So tell my audience and me, what is it at the heart of this story? What is this about? So within these walls of Star explores the true story of a group of Polish pharmacists in the Krakow ghetto. Wait, wait, wait. Pharmacists? Yes, they were pharmacists. I think I read that.

I want to be clear. My audience gets this. So this is in the Krakow ghetto, a group of pharmacists. You don't normally hear people. Non-Jewish pharmacists. referring to a group of pharmacists, but these were heroes. Please continue. So they were non-Jewish pharmacists. Teduzh Pankovic. He ran a pharmacy in the Krakow ghetto before it was the Krakow ghetto. Then when the ghetto was established, Tedu's was able to bribe the Nazi

authorities to stay in the ghetto so he could continue to run his pharmacy. And in that doing so, he was able to provide aid to the Jewish inhabitants, the 12 to 15,000 Jews who lived in the Krakow ghetto. And his pharmacy was called Under the Eagle. So that was the actual name of the pharmacy before he decided to be so heroic. It was just called Under the Eagle. But so why, and again, folks, I'm talking to Amanda Barrett and her new novel is within these walls of sorrow, referring, of course, to the Krakow ghetto. what was it about Pankowitz, this figure, this pharmacist, that made him want to help the Jews? Because, of course, we've heard the story of Oscar Schindler, or we've heard the story of people who have done this.

Most of us have never heard his name. So what was it about him that made him want to do this? And then tell us how you came upon the story. So basically for to-jus, it started out that he didn't want to lose his family's business. This pharmacy had been in his family. And so when he found out that all the non-Jews were going to have to leave the ghetto, he decided he had to take action. So he basically bribed the German authorities to allow him to stay just because he knew he wanted to hang on to his business. And also because he didn't want to take over a pharmacy run by Jews, which is what they were going to give him in exchange.

And so for him, it wasn't so much instantaneous heroism or courage, but that. But it soon grew into that as he saw the horrors that were going on in the ghetto. as he saw the poverty, as he saw the deportations, and he knew he had to take action. I first heard about the story of Teduzh when I was watching a YouTube video that was done by an American high school teacher who took a group of high school students to the area of the ghetto, and one of the places they visited was the pharmacy. And just this little brief clip in the video just made me want to know more about this man, more about the people who worked with him.

And so the more I researched, I decided that I needed to turn this into a novel. As an author, I really thrive on excavating those forgotten fragments of history and crafting them into an accessible narrative. And so that's what I sought to do with this book. Well, it is amazing to me how many stories there are out there that will never be told. So it's wonderful that you've unearthed this and that you've put it in the form of a novel. How do you pronounce his name? Tadouchevich. Tadush Pankovic.

So it's interesting to me also, Amanda, how a lot of us, I've written about a lot of heroic figures, and I always get the same kind of question, whether it's from my book, Seven Men or Seven Women, they make it sound like all of these figures are, you know, they're like born saints. And you realize, no, many of them evolve into this. And it sounds like that's the case with the figure about whom you've written in, in this book within these walls of sorrow, that first he's thinking about himself, I've got a business,

wait a minute, what do I do to preserve my business? And in the course of that begins to see, of course, what he could not have seen if he had left what became the ghetto. And it moved his heart.

And so I think it's always important to say that because sometimes people actually put figures, whether it's Bonhoeffer or Wilberforce, they put them in some special category. And you realize, no, folks, it's the same category in which you live. It's a human being who has the choice to move in this direction or that direction. And every little choice you make will be the story of your life. So it is amazing to me that this story didn't start that way.

This is not like the story of Corey Ten Boom, for example. That is absolutely true. and it wasn't dust to-dos with him work three women. And they were all in their 20s. So they were non-Jews. So they were leaving the ghetto at the end of their workday, going back to their homes outside the district, living in two worlds.

While in the ghetto, they were helping the Jews. They were smuggling food into the ghetto. So the Jewish people, because food was very scarce, and they were risking their lives to provide aid. And so I think I asked some version of this question a moment ago, but why do you suppose they were risking their lives? Obviously, they weren't Jews. There was nothing in it for them.

They could have just gone about their business and said, it's not my issue. I'm not the Nazi oppressor. I am just a pharmacist. I'm just working in a pharmacy. Do you get into the motivation of how it was that they came to risk their lives by providing food and other help to the Jews? I believe they were ordinary people who simply did what they believed to be right. They were seeing not only the poverty, but in 1942, they were seeing Jewish people brutally deported. And at that time, they only thought it was going to be to work camps.

And it ended up being to the Belchitz extermination camp. So they really believed that they could not look away from this. They could not look away from the heartbreak of this, that they had to take action, even if it was very small action. I want to know more about the actions that they took. I know people who read your book within these walls of sorrow will find out more. But again, these are people running a pharmacy. What were the sorts of things that they were able to do? Well, medicine was a large one.

They would give a lot of that free of charge, also smuggling food. They also provided forged papers so people could get work permits or even get papers that would allow them to pass as polls outside the district. One of the things they did is they made hair dye using pharmacy equipment, and that hair dye was given to older people who may have been deemed unfit for labor by their age, but were instead able to pass and able to survive. They also, when the deportation started, began finding hiding places for their friends outside the district, their Jewish friends, who were then able to escape the ghetto and leave and find safety elsewhere.

And of course, they could not do that for everyone, but they did try to do it for as many as they could. That is amazing. I mean, we forget that there's this reality because you wrote the book, you see it. But we tend to think of all this stuff monolithically, and it's in black and white in terms of there's good and there's evil. But all the nuances of what it would be like to actually be living through that time and to be fearing that I'm going to be deemed not old enough to work and then sent to a death camp. I guess that's what you're implying. Yes.

And that was their great fear. I mean, even if it was the work camp, it was still leaving the ghetto. And once Teduz received a letter in the autumn of 1942, written by somebody, and it told the truth. It told the truth that these people are going to a place where they are being gassed, forced into chambers and gassed. And at that point, his urgency and his colleague's urgency became so much greater. Did they have any kind of manner? Were these the kind of people that you would describe as people of particular faith or not so much? They were Catholic. They were practicing Catholic as Poland. Many people are Catholic over there. I believe that they did have a faith, but that they were also simply just doing it because they knew it was the right thing to do to preserve human dignity and uphold human decency. Well, it is amazing to me. I want to know how does one go about doing this kind of research, because people always ask me when I write my books, how did you do it? And there's some research that's not so difficult. There's so much that's been written on Bonhoeffer and all of his writings have been published. But this is much more original research that you did. How did you begin that process?

So Teduz wrote a memoir after the war, and so his memoir was the touchstone on which I built. I also read dozens of testimonies in memoirs by survivors of the Krakow ghetto in the various camps that are portrayed in the novel. Over 50 books I have on my list of resources that I read. Though I wasn't able to travel to Poland, I wrote the novel right in the middle of the pandemic, so I wasn't able to make that trip, but the staff at the museum commemorating the pharmacy was invaluable in providing floor plans, lots of photographs, answering my endless questions, and they even had interviews with the women who worked at the pharmacy that I was able to access, and all of that really provided the basis, which I then filled in with my fictional pen.

It's amazing to me. There is a museum there. We can visit this museum if we go to Krakow. Unbelievable. We'll be right back talking to Amanda Barrett. Don't go away. Spends his days. Content.

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She's an author. She's written a number of books. The new one is called Within These Walls of Sorrow, a novel of World War II, Poland. Amanda, you were just saying that effectively the protagonist of this true story, you have turned it into a novel. less it's a true story. It is that he was someone who after the war wrote about these experiences. And so you had this firsthand documentation on which to build your story. When did he decide to write this? And what was his life after the war? He started writing it very quickly. He knew the urgency of preserving this. After the war, Poland suffered terribly in communism, and he actually

lost his pharmacy and had to go elsewhere. But throughout his life, people would write to him and thank him for what he did. He would receive letters from those who he helped. One of the letters that was the most memorable that I read was written by a man who was only about 12 when he was in the ghetto, and he wrote to Dejuze, and he said, Dear Mr. Pankovic, thank you for the help that you gave me when I was in the ghetto. And here, here's some payment. Here's a check for the three pills, which you gave me then and for which I could not pay you. So now I'm paying you now. I have never forgotten your kindness all of these years. And so we think about that. We think about, you know, all he did was give pills. But it was a small moment. It was a glimmer of light in the midst of

the synthetimal darkness. And it left a very indelible legacy. Well, and it's so beautiful to think that there were people who did survive. We always think about the tragedy of those who didn't survive, but some did, and that they would remember for the rest of their lives, these acts of kindness. It is extraordinary. I've never been to Krakow. The ghetto, for those of us who don't really remember or never knew, what was the ghetto within Krakow? In other words, was it a very small part of Krakow? How many people were there? And actually explain what is what was this idea of the ghetto that the Nazis created this. Now we all use, we know the term ghetto, but they created this, this ghetto.

So they never called it a ghetto. They always called it a Jewish residential district. That was what the Germans officially called it. So it was the part of Krakow that they set aside and they walled it off. These people, these Jewish people moved into this ghetto and very soon a wall began to rise and the top of the wall was shaped like tombstones. So this is what they're entering into. This is their world. They lived in conditions of overcrowding, very, you know, several families sharing one tiny apartment. They were leaving the district. Many to work in German factories, among them, Oscar Schindler's factory is perhaps the most famous. And it was a very dark place. It was, you know, there was hunger. There was, you know, poverty. But in the midst of that there was the pharmacy, and people often describe the pharmacy after when speaking about it, as it was almost like a diplomatic embassy, an out- post, a separate world within these walls. When did the Nazis establish what we call the ghetto in Krakow?

And what was their thinking behind it? This was before they were shipping all of the Jews to the death camps. Obviously, the final solution didn't come until the middle of the war. So when did they begin with this idea of the ghetto? So the ghetto was established in March 1941 and continued. for two years until March, 1943, when it was very brutally liquidated, when many people in the ghetto, those deemed unable to work, the elderly, the children, were simply murdered in the ghetto while the remainder were marched to the nearby Plaschow labor camp.

So, and how did any survive? They were basically allowed to work. They were moved to the Plashow camp where there were a lot of factories set up, where there was industry, where they were basically exploiting this labor, this Jewish labor, by allowing them to live so they could work. It's just, it's unbelievable. A lot of this stuff gets blurred in our mind, so it's great to be reminded of the specifics. We know the Nazis invaded Poland in the fall of 39 that began the war.

But so then Krakow continued as a city somehow until the Nazis decided to do this. And this was concurrent almost with the final solution. So I'm just not sure what life would have been like in Poland for Jews up until the establishment of the ghetto. It was also difficult. There were very many regulations. Jews were robbed of their businesses. Their Germans took over their business. Oscar Schindler is one of them. He took over a factory that was owned by Jews. They were given far less rations. There were certain streets they couldn't walk on. They couldn't ride on the public transport. They couldn't sit on public benches.

So it was this constant, like this noose was slowly tightening around these people, and then that culminated in the ghetto, and then it culminated again when the deportations to the death camps began. It's extraordinary. I just want to commend you again for doing all the research that's involved in this. A final segment coming up, but before we get into that, I want to just begin to ask you about, How do you, what's the process of writing a novel, which is ostensibly fiction, but based on nonfiction? I mean, this almost sounds like you've written nonfiction with some novelistic elements. Yes, it is very much based on the memoirs I read. I read very, and all the research I did. So the research was very much at the heart of this. And then basically what I did is I just filled in some

fictional elements. So I basically tried to place the fictional characters on the historical canvas. That's the way to do it, folks, in case you want to know how to write one of these things. And it's not easy to do, but it's just so wonderful. The book is within these walls of sorrow, a novel of World War II, Poland, the author Amanda Barrett. We will be right back. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401ks, IRAs, and other investment accounts? Folks, this is a huge problem, and we need to do something

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Folks, welcome back. I love interviewing fellow authors because you can talk shop a little bit. And I think, you know, those of us who are readers understand that, you know, you can read a book that has a lot of important information in it. How it is written is a huge part of whether you will read the book, whether you will read the book all the way through to the end. So writing well, not just writing about important things, but writing about them particularly well, makes a big difference. And I'm very happy to say that the book we're talking about by Amanda Barrett within these walls of sorrow has been praised for its writing. In fact, Publishers Weekly has said this tense World War II historical from Amanda Barrett follows a woman's efforts to help her neighbors survive the Krakow ghetto, moving and effective. This inspirational book finds light in the darkest.

of places. For publishers weekly, to call a book moving and effective, is just wonderful. And I'm grateful to you, Amanda, for being the kind of writer that writes books people actually want to read. I want not to forget to ask you, how did you come to be this kind of writer? You're very young. Did you grow up just reading a lot, knowing this is what you wanted to do? I've always been an avid reader. My interest in World War II, stemmed from the time I read the diary of Anne Frank as a young girl. And from then, I always sought out books like this about the true stories of ordinary people in the midst of the darkness of World War II through, but I didn't actually sit down and start to write World War II fiction

and can't tell I came across the story of Dietrich Bonhofer and his fiancee. And the more I researched the life of Maria von Betameyer, the more I wanted to explore her role in Dietrich's story. And that led to me writing a novel about the White Rose Resists, Hans and Sophie Scholl and the courageous German students. So it's almost like layers of tissue paper. One book leads into another. It's funny when you talk about Maria von Vedemeyer, I still can't believe that I had the privilege of meeting two of her sisters, one of whom lives in New York, not far from where I live, and of meeting her eldest sister who's now passed away. but in a nursing home near Hamburg.

We can sometimes forget that these are real people, and it's important for us to know that, yes, they live just as we live and just as we are facing difficult things. They face difficult things, which became almost impossibly difficult. So I find it so important. I didn't when I really began writing the books that I write, but important that we tell these stories and tell them well. And people are always saying to me, Eric, here's a story.

You should write this or you should write that. And I never have time to write the books people suggest to me. But I wanted to ask you whether you're familiar with the story of the heroic resistance of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria. I've only heard about this recently. It's one of those books that I want to say to you, hey, you should think about writing about that. because the more I hear about it, I know there's some book has been written about it, but we often hear about what went wrong about how people didn't do anything. So when you read about someone who did the right thing,

it gives you hope that we in our time can do the right thing. And I'm just curious if you've even heard, most people have even heard of the heroic resistance protecting the Jews by the Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria. Do you know anything about that at all? Yes, I do. I have heard of that. Not enough to speak about it intelligently, but I have heard briefly about the story and was incredibly inspired by it.

It sounds like, again, it's one of those stories of ordinary people quietly doing what they knew to be right, and these people were motivated by their Christian faith. Well, the reason it's so appealing to me, of course, is because it was because of their Christian faith, because we have so many stories of Christians not, either not doing the right thing or hesitating from doing the right thing and then realizing by the time they want to do the right thing, it's too late. And I think that's where we are in this country,

and I've been writing about that myself. But I'll be like the obnoxious people who tell me what I should write my next book about and suggest to you that this might make a good subject. Because it's a very rare story that the church, that the leaders of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria were so extraordinarily heroic. because of their Christian faith.

And the more I heard about it, the more I was amazed, which is what made me have to ask you. Can you tell us about the life of the figure that you write about in your book within these walls of sorrow? Again, after the war, obviously Poland is taken over by the Soviet Union. Do you know when Pankovitz, when he died? He died. Well, he was recognized by Yad Bishchevich.

as righteous among the nations. And so that was an honor that was bestowed upon him. And with good reason for those, he helped. And I don't recall the exact year of his death, but he was recognized by Yad Vashem as righteous among the nations. That's a big deal. That is just wonderful. And do you know about any of the women who worked for him?

Did they live long lives? Because just the thought of doing these heroic things and then seeing your own country taken over by the Soviets, It's heartbreaking. It really was. Yes, they all died, I believe, Tudus and the three women who worked with them all died very close to each other in the early 90s. And these women rarely spoke about their wartime experiences or wrote they did not write memoirs like Taduz did. So basically they carried all of this with them.

And again, they did much and really deserve the commendation and honor, which is what I sought to do with this book. I'm always amazed that Bonhofer has not been recognized by Yad Vashem. But I kind of think, you know, I don't think Bonhofer cares where he is today. He's really not thinking, oh, darn it. If only I could have gotten a placate at Yadbashem. But, again, it's important for us to understand these kinds of stories within these walls of sorrow. Brand new book. Are you even thinking about what you might be working on next?

Yes, I'm actually in the process. My next novel is in the editing stages. So it has been written. It returns to Poland during the World War II. This time it explores the true story of Arana Sennler. She was a Polish social worker who smuggled children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. And it also explores the Polish underground army who rose up in Warsaw in 1944 and a 63-day, very tragic uprising. That is a huge story.

Some people are familiar with that story, but the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. I mean, it's just hard for many of us to even believe these things happen, which is why writing books about them ends up being, so very important. So Amanda, thanks again for coming back on the program. Thanks for all the books you have written. And again, folks, this new one, within these walls of sorrow, a novel of World War II Poland.

Amanda, thank you. Thank you so much, Eric. This has been just as such a joy. Thank you. So welcome back. Before we leave you for the day, three reminders. Number one, Socrates in the city February 28th.

Again, I just rave like an idiot. I, when I read Jeannie Constantine's book, The Crucifixion of the King of Glory a year ago, I said next year around the beginning of Lent, I've got to see if I can get her to come from San Diego, long flight, to do a Socrates in the city in New York to talk about this. this book brought me closer to Jesus. I don't say that about a lot of books. It's an amazing, amazing, amazing book to have her at the Socrates event to talk to her about it. If you can get to New York, February 28th, go to Socratesandcity.com.

And if you can't get there, we're doing something we've never, never, never done before, live streaming of the event, live streaming. That's kind of putting some weird pressure on me that people are going to be watching it live, unedited. So Socrates in the city.com. check it out. I also want to say this Sunday, that's this, that's like, but a couple of days. I'm speaking in Bethel, Connecticut at his vineyard. Look it up on my website. His vineyard, Bethel, Connecticut, lots of friends coming to that. And then before we leave you, we want to remind you, we are doing an absolutely urgent emergency appeal to you.

This is just a three-day thing because of the horror of whatever. has happened in Turkey and Syria. A couple nights ago, the folks on the Salem Network decided, let's do this. This is an emergency. Let's jump in. They need our help now. This is not a long-term thing. If we don't help them right now, they cannot be helped. This is disastrous. So many thousands of people have died. Every time I tell you the amount, it keeps going up. It's horrifying. You can't even imagine talking about 20-something thousand people dead. is it's it's unimaginable it's it's an earthquake of such devastation that we've got to do something and that's what americans do we step up folks by the grace of god that's what we that's

been the spirit of this country and that is that comes from our christian faith um so the way you can give um actually before i say that let me play a clip uh for you uh rescue teams from the u s Okay, the bottom line is a lot of these countries are pathetic at disaster relief. Turkey is not good. Syria, they're just not doing the job and the people who are suffering are angry. And so, of course, the U.S. sends teams in. So I want to play a clip of that. Let's play that clip.

Piles of equipment wrapped in webbing were unloaded from a C-130 cargo plane at Angelic Air Base in Turkey as urban search and rescue teams from fire departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Los Angeles County, California, arrived to lend a hand. The teams are traveling with 159 people, 170,000 pounds of specialized equipment, and 12 rescue dogs trained in finding victims who are still alive beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings. The teams and the dogs wore special jackets marked with the U.S. Agency for International Development logo. I'm Jennifer King. Look, it's an amazing privilege that we get to do something, but we have to do it like right now. Like absolutely right now. This is a three-day appeal. Please, if you can do something, there's two ways to give. Go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner. You can give anything you give, obviously. They need our help now. This is utterly urgent. That's why we're doing this. If you prefer to give on your phone, you can text the keyword Eric, obviously my name, E-R-I-C, to 911-999-9-9-9-9. Text the keyword Eric. to 911-999, and it'll give you a link to my donation page for food for the poor.

Food for the poor are heroes, but they can't do it without you being a hero and stepping up. So text Eric to 911-999, please right away. Again, text the keyword, Eric, to 911-999. Give anything, anything. Or go to metaxis talk.com. and again text the keyword Eric to 911-9-9-9. God bless you.