In this collection, six talented authors give insights into the valuable lessons we can learn from our shared history—the history of World War II. I appreciate the fact that these collected works include a diverse range of characters and scenarios; the history of this war is one that touched almost everyone, and there are many stories to find beyond the expected adventure tales of soldiers and spies, many valuable lessons to learn so that we can become a better, more resilient, more peaceful global human family.
My wish is that you will not only enjoy these stories for the entertainment they provide, but also that you will think about the lessons these tales have to teach us here and now, in our present reality. And that you will use whatever you learn to help make the world a kinder, more loving place, through any small power that resides in your hands.
Olivia Hawker, author of The Ragged Edge of Night
Stolen Childhood
Marion Kummerow
Synopsis
When a ragged doll is your only friend…
Mindel doesn’t remember her birthday or her last name anymore. Four years old, she was separated from her older sister, Rachel, as soon as they arrived at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Left to fend for herself with only her doll as an ally, she finds 6-year-old Lazlo and his gang of children. Because the adults can’t protect them from the SS, they take survival into their own little hands.
Rachel is old enough to work in an ammunition factory. The work is brutally hard and the living conditions are horrendous, but she wills herself to stay alive, because she needs to find her baby sister Mindel again.
Without her protection, how can Mindel stay alive?
But as the war nears its end, and the Nazis become more desperate to hide their crimes, can the two sisters survive? And will they find each other again in the chaos of liberation?
A touching story of self-sacrifice and survival from a USA Today Bestselling author.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Author’s Notes
About the Author
1
April 1944, Bergen-Belsen
Mindel pressed her doll Paula against her heart, tears flowing down her cheeks. Ever since those awful men in black uniforms had captured her and her seventeen-year-old sister Rachel, they’d been sent from camp to camp – each one worse than the one before.
After another horrible train ride, Rachel had grabbed her hand and pulled her behind her for an interminable walk until they arrived at yet another camp. Mindel knew all too well the sight of a wrought-iron gate and barbed wire around the place.
Every place those awful men in black uniforms, SS as the adults called them, had brought them looked the same. And Mindel still didn’t understand why.
Nobody, not even Rachel, had answered her questions about the why. Why am I here? What have I done? Wasn’t I good? Shame crept up her body as she remembered how she’d been fighting with her two older brothers Aron and Israel. She’d pinched Aron and broken Israel’s catapult. But the SS men couldn’t possibly know about that.
More tears flowed as she thought of her brothers, whom she hadn’t seen in such a long time. At seven and ten years of age, she adored and admired them immensely – at least most of the time. Would they find her, knock down the SS men and rescue her and Rachel? She hoped so.
But then desperation tore at her again. Her sister was gone. Gone. Upon arrival at the camp one of the guards had separated them and put her into another line, ignoring Rachel’s protests and Mindel’s frantic cries.
By now she’d been searching this desolate place for hours, but there was no trace of Rachel, anywhere.
“Now it’s only you and me, Paula,” she said to her doll between sobs. “But I will take care of you, don’t you worry.”
Paula nodded and pressed herself tighter against Mindel. Desperate to protect her doll, the girl squeezed her beneath the long-sleeved dress she’d been given in the last camp, when her own summer dress had fallen apart. More women arrived, the crowd pushing and shoving. Mindel stumbled against a young woman and in her effort not to get trampled by the mass of bodies, she clasped her hands around the woman’s skirt.
Either the stranger didn’t notice or didn’t mind, because she kept on walking, dragging Mindel behind.
“Nationality?” the guard asked the woman.
“Dutch.”
“Star Camp, over there.” He pointed to another line and then looked down at Mindel and up at the woman. “The child, too.”
The crowd organized itself, everyone falling into different lines of five people wide each. Mindel kept clinging to the stranger, because she had no idea what else to do.
Hours later, when her ever-grumbling stomach gave vicious stabs and she barely noticed her legs anymore, the line came to a stop and the woman turned around. “Now, get away from me, you filthy urchin!”
Mindel had become used to being called names, and filthy urchin was one of the nicest things people had thrown at her during the past months. Nevertheless, she let go of the woman’s skirt and moments later found herself standing all alone.
“I’m hungry,” Paula said from beneath Mindel’s dress.
“I’ll go and look for something to eat. Usually they have soup somewhere.” Mindel trotted off to where she saw another line forming, and just like she had hoped, there was a pot at the end that was even bigger than she.
With renewed energy she took her place at the end of the line, forewarning her doll, “Paula. I know you don’t like the soup, but you have to eat every drop of it, because it will keep you strong. Promise?”
Valiantly she kept her eyes dry as
