Eyes of the Blind

About the Book

"Eyes of the Blind" introduces Ann and Bets Frank. During World War II, these two blind, middle-aged music teachers defied the German occupiers of Holland by giving refuge to a medical student, who otherwise would have been deported to Germany as a slave laborer. A few months later they also took in a Jewish woman, whose family had scattered elsewhere for safety. Behind this historical setting are stories of amazing courage, intrigue and selflessness that are testaments to the generosity of the human spirit and dignity of the individual.

The sisters taught the student to become part of their unseeing world; he too became "blind." Despite the constant food shortage and the obvious danger of a Nazi raid on their house, these four people formed a warm and most unusual wartime family. It lasted until they were betrayed and the Gestapo raided their house. They caught the Jewish lady, but the student escaped and then he really went underground, in a coal mine. He managed to get to England where he had an officer´s training. He then served three years in the Far East, was seriously wounded and finally, after seven long years, started medical school all over again.

The author was that student. In 1956, he imigrated to the United States and became the first American Cancer Society Professor of Clnical Oncology. He owes much of his career to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, to the National Cancer Institute and to the American Cancer Society. And how can he forget the Frank sisters who gave him safety in 1943-1944? "Eyes of the Blind", the proceeds of which will go to the research of cancer and the search for light behind the unseeing eye, is his way of a payback.

Ann Frank died on June 10, 1992 at age 102.

Proceeds will go to the research of cancer and blindness.

About the Author

Barth Hoogstraten was born in Loosdrecht, Holland, in 1924. He became a medical student in 1942 and when the Nazis forced him to sign a loyalty decree to the occupying forces, he refused to do so. He went into hiding, worked in a coalmine and after being liberated, he volunteered for the army. He had English officers training and served for three years on Java, Indonesia. In 1949 he resumed his medical studies, became a MD in 1955 and emigrated to America. Hoogstraten was the first American Cancer Society Professor of Clinical Oncology. In 1978 he studied the incidence and presentation of breast cancer in Egyptian women and the Bedouin women of Kuwait. From 1980 to 1992, he was the United States representative of the Committee for Cancer Therapy and Rehabilitation of the International Union Against Cancer. He has edited and authored seven books on cancer research, of which Breast Cancer and Lung Tumors have international authorships. Dr. and Mrs. Hoogstraten live on Daufuskie Island in South Carolina.