This is a free event. Hour of Need, written by Ralph Shayne and illustrated by Tatiana Goldberg, is available for purchase in the Museum Store.

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Author Ralph Shayne created the graphic novel, Hour of Need, from family diaries to tell his mother’s true story of growing up in Denmark during World War 2 and surviving the Holocaust by escaping to Sweden as a child.  Told from the point of view of Mette returning to Denmark years later with her grandchildren, Hour of Need captures one of the War's rare humanitarian miracles.  When the Nazis move to round up young Mette and her fellow Danish Jews in a surprise raid in 1943 after years of letting Denmark rule its people, her father must make life and death decisions to save his family. While the mythical legend of Holger Danske, as told by Hans Christian Andersen, promises to protect Denmark from danger, the legend's spirit manifests itself in the compassion and bravery of a school teacher turned resistance leader and other ordinary citizens who bravely defy the Nazi regime to come to Mette's rescue. In a spontaneously arranged operation, her fellow Danes, from king to fisherman, risk their lives to evacuate most of Denmark's Jews to the safety offered by Sweden in small rowing boats and fishing boats. Hour of Need is a tribute to these heroes and to how humanity triumphed in one of its darkest hours.

Ralph released Hour of Need on the 80th anniversary of the WW2 rescue of the Danish Jews in partnership with the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.  Ralph still lives in Chicago, has boy-girl twins who have starring roles in Hour of Need, and remains close to the members of his family who still reside in Denmark.