Cries in the Night is the story of seven Catholic women who defied Hitler and the Nazis during the Holocaust by saving Jews. Phayer and Fleischner show that these women, motivated by compassion and a sense of justice, to be sure, also strongly desired that their church take up the cause of the Jews during the Holocaust. These women beleived that the true mission of the Chruch lay not in preserving the Chruch's external structure and buildings, but in defending the oppressed.