“Now,” Lena said when Wim and Maaike had been sent off to bed again. “Tell us about Elisabeth.” She lay in Ans’s arms, guzzling the bottle of milk.

“She’s Jewish,” Ans said softly. “She and her parents needed to go into hiding. The Nazis are rounding up all of the Jews in Leiden and deporting them. I hoped you’d be willing to take Elisheva.”

“Yes, of course we will,” Pieter said. “We’ll help any way we can.”

“The Dutch underground supplied a false birth certificate that says she’s Elisabeth Jager from Noordwijk and that her mother died. Her father supposedly travels with the railroad. The certificate should be sufficient if the Nazis inspect her papers. I hesitated to put you in danger, and especially Wim and Maaike —”

“We’re trusting God to keep them safe,” Pieter said. “They don’t know anything at all about our underground activities.”

“We’ve prayed about it,” Lena said, glancing at her father. “And we believe God is asking us to do whatever we can to fight against this evil. The baby’s parents are welcome to hide here, too. Surely they’ll want to be together.” Lena could well imagine the grief Elisabeth’s mother must have felt when she released her child into a stranger’s arms. Only desperation could have torn one of Lena’s children from her.

“It isn’t safe for them to hide together. Elisabeth’s parents are refugees from Germany and speak Dutch with an accent. The Resistance will find hiding places for them.”

“Is it dangerous living in Leiden?” Lena asked. “Because you know you can always move back here with us.” It was what Lena wanted with all her heart, just as Elisabeth’s mother had wanted her child to be safe.

“I need to go back and help all the others, Mama. The Resistance is also hiding onderduikers —men who’d otherwise be sent to Nazi labor camps.”

“Tell your contacts they can send people to us,” Pieter said. “Your mother and I have built hiding places to store food, but we could easily hide people there too.”

“And I know several trustworthy people in my congregation who’d be willing to help,” Papa added.

“Thank you. I know they’ll be grateful.”

“We’ve formed a local group of resisters,” Pieter said. “We’ve been stockpiling food and doing things to disrupt the Nazis any way we can. We’re willing to do more if you tell us what needs to be done.”

“Well, besides hiding places,” Ans said, “they need a supply of ration cards to feed the people in hiding. The Resistance steals them when they’re delivered to post offices each month. I know they’re breaking one of the Ten Commandments, but —”

“We’ll ask the Almighty for forgiveness,” Papa said. “Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor, first and foremost. I think we can put underground work into that category.”