Helping Hand of Fate

Mark Mazower reviewed Courage and Compassion by Tony Molho for the Times Literary Supplement.

“In the last days of the German occupation in Athens, after many vicissitudes and close shaves, there came perhaps the closest shave of all. Five-year-old Tony Molho was with his mother on a tram taking them across town to her workplace when suddenly two plainclothes policemen got on, one at the front and the other at the back, to check papers. Immediately, many of the passengers showed signs of nervousness, heightened as the policemen converged on a suspect and tried to arrest him.

At this point, the driver opened the doors, and as he did so Molho’s mother abruptly put little Tony’s hand into the hand of a man standing next to them, then without a word jumped off the tram and disappeared. The whole thing happened in a few seconds, before the doors closed and the tram moved off again. No one said anything. The man, still holding the boy’s hand, edged towards the door, got off at the next stop, then proceeded back in the direction the tram had come from. Molho’s mother came running towards them; they exchanged a few words; the unknown saviour patted the boy on the head, smiled and walked off.”

Read more here.