Book Review of Last Train to Freedom by Deborah Swift

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Uneasy alliances and a most dangerous journey.

(This review is based on a review copy from the publisher.)

This Novel is set in 1940, when Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were still allies and the Empire of Japan also had a non-aggression pact with Russia. (Which Stalin did not actually break until 1945.) Poland was invaded the previous year (this was a joint exercise between Hitler and Stalin) causing Jews in particular to flee to the recently (and only temporarily) independent Baltic States. This novel does not even touch on the invasions of Denmark, Norway and Finland which were also enabled by agreement between Hitler and Stalin in the same period. (Perhaps the present day rapprochement between Russia and the United States might be evaluated in the light of this?)

Zofia, her twin brother Jacek and their uncle Tata are Polish Jews who have found refuge and even jobs, in Lithuania. Their escape from the NAZI-occupied half of Poland was a nightmare, both in terms of the violence directed at them and the violence which Jacek is compelled to commit to keep them all alive. Zofia now works in a library, Jacek is a journalist at a Lithuanian newspaper and Tata teaches at a school. The Red Army invades, suddenly and with rather more force directed at civilians than at the tiny Lithuanian Army. Instead of being at risk of summary execution by the NAZIs for being Jewish, they are now at risk of summary execution by the Red Army and NKVD for being “intellectuals” and Zofia finds her gentile, female librarian employer hanging from a tree and swarming with flies. This makes her more aware of the dangers than her brother seems to be, and it takes quite a while for Jacek to get his head around the fact that the Soviets are at least as murderous as the NAZIs and somewhat less fussy about protocol. Tata is seized by the Russians, supposedly for forced labour but it soon transpires that the Russians couldn’t be bothered to actually send everyone to labour camps so older detainees were killed out of hand and only just out of sight. All this sets the scene for Zofia and Jacek’s escape, and an important mission.

The Japanese Consul in Lithuania, Sugihara (this is a character taken from real life and treated with proper respect by the author) finds his consulate besieged by Jewish refugees who believe there might be a legal loophole which would allow them to travel, legally, right across Russia to Japan and onwards from there to the Dutch East Indies. This turns out to be technically feasible, but the Japanese Government, trying to satisfy both the Soviets and the NAZIs, forbids Sugihara to issue the necessary papers. But he also comes across evidence of systematic mass killings by the NAZIs, both of Jews and of Polish officers. He cannot convey this evidence to his nearest superiors in Berlin over the phone, nor to Tokyo by cable. Realising that he will be recalled and probably sacked, and realising also that the Russians will almost certainly kick him out of Lithuania anyway now the country is controlled from Moscow where there is already a Japanese full ambassador, he starts to issue as many transit visas as he thinks he will be able to sign in the time he has left. It is not enough, and Zofia and Jacek, plus one other, only get transit visas because Sugihara offers them the job of taking a sealed packet to his ultimate superior in Tokyo. They leave the consulate even as Russian troops are barging their way in to evict Sugihara.

The escape route involves two local trains to reach Moscow and an enforced stay in a hotel before refugees are allowed to board the Trans Siberian Express. It remains legal, because the Russians intend to extort money from every refugee at every stop on the fifteen-day journey across the world’s biggest country. It is an ordeal even for those refugees not carrying a packet of secret papers.

The NAZIs and the NKVD both know that Zofia and Jacek have a packet of evidence, which the NAZIs are determined to destroy and which the NKVD intend to exploit for propaganda purposes in the case of a German onslaught against Russia, which they know will come at some point. Either outcome would cost countless Jewish lives, by closing Japan’s borders to Jews seeking refuge or onwards transit.

The danger escalates every time the Trans Siberian Express stops and there are both noble sacrifices and bitter betrayals, and during the final stops of the train on Russian territory, the refugees who have seen their money taken from them along the way until they only have their spare clothes in their luggage, are robbed even of that by Russian soldiers. (Who are working at cross-purposes to both the NKVD and the SS.)

Even when the packet reaches Tokyo and Sugihara’s superior, the suspense persists because how can its contents be acted on without exposing Japan to a diplomatic rift with either Germany or Russia, or, worse, both countries at once? Japan still hopes to preserve its trade with the British Empire, too. The interesting and very Japanese denouement is based on historical fact.

Last Train to Freedom by Deborah Swift is published by HQ on the 8^th of May 2025