"Barbara Elliott writes with deep insight and understanding." - Dr. Russell Kirk
"Those who wonder why merely candles and prayer were sufficient as weapons will know the answer after reading this book." - Peter Hahne, ZDF News, Mainz, Germany
"Barbara Elliott gives an impressive account of these individual people in a hostile environment." - Johannes Rau, Former President of Germany
Candles Behind the Wall
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Dr. Elliott launched a private initiative in West Germany to assist the refugees from Eastern Europe. As she helped to meet their needs, they gave her a glimpse into the lives they had led behind the Iron Curtain, hidden from the eyes of the world. Intrigued by the bloodless nature of the revolution, Dr. Elliott then traveled into the formerly Communist countries to meet the people who had stayed to work for peaceful change. She interviewed Berlin border guards, priests, underground church leaders, politicians, and ordinary citizens who sacrificed everything to obey their convictions. This book tells their stories.
"In her extraordinary work, Barbara Elliott uncovers the story of human drama at its highest and best. It is enough merely to be human, she finds, to under the evil in this world of sorrows. One only needs to stand and to bear witness to the light." - Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, Professor of History, Hillsdale College
"Like a fine tapestry, Candles Behind the Wall weaves together the intricate pattern of lives of faith with the drama of world events. The reader will be inspired, humbled, and overwhelmed with the reality that there really is a source of good in this universe beyond the power of evil to snuff out." - Dr. Kent Hill, Religious Freedom Institute, Author of Soviet Union on the Brink
"This book tracks the lives of some of the faithful few through the metaphysical desert behind the Iron Curtain. By the grace of God, they were witnesses of God's power that brought about the fall of communism." - Joachim Cardinal Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne emeritus