Free Hero by martha attema

from farm to farm until the whole country was liberated, after which they returned to my great uncle’s farm.
    During my research on the couriers, girls and women who worked for the resistance during World War II, I learned that many Jewish children were taken from Amsterdam to farms in Friesland by young girls sometimes on the carriers of their bikes. These children went to school, disguised as nieces and nephews of the farmer and his family. After the war some children were reunited with their families, but in a few known instances, when the Jewish parents had perished, the farm family adopted the child.
    Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Life became difficult for the Dutch citizens, especially the Jewish people. As the war progressed Jews lost their jobs, were forbidden towalk in parks and ride buses. Schools were closed for Jewish children. On their outer garments they had to sew a yellow star with the word
Jood
(Jew) printed on it. Later, their property and possessions were taken and they were ordered to live in a ghetto in Amster dam. From the ghetto a train left once a week to transport Jews to the Dutch concentration camp, Westerbork. In this camp the Jewish prisoners waited for further transportation to camps in Germany and Poland. The first transport from Westerbork to Poland happened on July 15, 1942.
    Many Jews disobeyed the orders and went into hiding. Dutch people risked their lives to transport and hide Jewish people. In July 1942, Piet Meerburg, a student from Amsterdam, traveled to Friesland to find safe homes for Jewish children. As a result, the involvement of the resistance movement in saving Jewish people, especially children, increased.
    The war lasted five years. The winter of 1944–1945 was called the “Hunger Winter” as so many people died of starvation in the big cities. It was also one of the coldest winters, and without fuel to heat their homes, the Dutch people suffered terribly.
    For more information on World War II and Friesland and for the study guide, please visit my web site at: www.marthaattema.com

    Photo credit: M.J. Hughes
    Hero
is martha sttema’s second Young Reader about World War II. Her first was
Daughter of Light
(Orca, 2001). Hero was a real stallion owned by Martha’s great uncle and stolen by the Germans just as the war was ending. A boy from the farm went with the horse and managed to escape and bring Hero home. In
Hero
, truth becomes powerful fiction. Martha’s next project involves building instead of writing. She and her husband are building a straw bale house, which will be both their home and an educational site.

Other books by martha attema:
    A Time to Choose
    A Light in the Dunes
    Daughter of Light
    When the War is Over