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WW2 Historical Fiction – The Resistance & Other Helpers

In our 1930s and 1940s months for the Decades Challenge, and on the Book Voyage Challenge reading lists for every region of the world, you’ll find books covering many unique, and often unknown, aspects of World War II.  We try to balance out each of those lists with a variety of other topics as well, which means there are many important WW2 historical fiction books that don’t make the reading challenge lists.

We spent many hours this week researching WW2 novels and came up with more than 100 highly-rated options. That’s way too many for one post, so we grouped them into themes, and one quickly emerged as the topic we wanted to share with you first.

The Resistance Movement

Our favorite Mr. Rogers quote is based on advice from his own mom. When news is bad, “​​Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

During WWII, that statement rang true throughout the world in the most incredible ways, large and small. Whether hiding or feeding a single person or working as part of a large-scale resistance mission, the characters in these WW2 books had a courageous resolve to choose good in the face of evil.

While the books on this particular list are all historical fiction set in WW2, many are based on real stories and real heroes who risked everything for the greater good. In a time when it’s easy to see the worse in humanity, we love the reminder that good is also all around. And perhaps even more important, we can choose to be the good in a wide variety of ways. 

The Best WW2 Books: The Resistance & Other Helpers

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Angela & Melissa

The Book Girls are best friends who jointly read over 200 books per year. We started Book Girls' Guide in 2019 to help others de-stress and find joy through the power of a great book. We do in-depth research on thousands of novels and non-fiction titles each year to provide curated book lists covering a variety of genres.

Books Set in the 1940s

Saturday 13th of May 2023

[…] This list includes a wide range of topics beyond WW2. However, if you enjoy reading about the war years, you’ll also want to check out our list of historical fiction about WW2 resistance workers. […]

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