Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck (Dear America)

My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck (Dear America)
reviewed on + 471 more book reviews


The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck. Long Island, NY, 1941.

June 12, 1942. Tonight I got caught. I'm still shaking. I don't understand what happened, really. I was walking on the foggy beach...I heard voices and saw the shapes of two men near the dunes. I turned back to go home, but one of the men called out and shined a flashlight on me, and I froze like a rabbit.
The man angrily told me to halt and he asked who I was and where I lived. I told him my name was Madeline Beck and gave him my address. He ordered me to turn around. I did, and he walked up to me in the dark and shined the flashlight right in my eyes. When I started to turn away, he said "Look straight into this light, Madeline Beck." And I looked into the light, and I was blinded, and he said, "We're the Coast Guard. You did not see us here. You saw nothing."