A confusing jumble of voices and boots along with Frits’s shouts came from below. Then footsteps thundered up the stairs, bedroom doors opened and closed. The man continued shouting as he tried to make Miss Hannie understand. “Out! All of these persons must be cleared out! We need hospital beds!”

“But these are our residents’ rooms. Where will they sleep?”

“I told you! You must contact their families! Send them to their families!”

“Meijers House is our home.” Miss Hannie’s voice trembled. “My sister and I and my son live here. Where would we go?”

“If you let us stay,” Miss Willy said, “we can help you tend the wounded.” Miriam didn’t hear the reply as the man moved away and down the stairs.

“Are the Nazis staying?” Klara whispered. Miriam nodded. “We’re trapped! What are we going to do? There’s no other way out of this attic!” She clutched her daughter close.

“Hannie knows we’re up here,” Miriam whispered between frantic gasps. Terror had sucked all the air from her lungs, and she struggled to breathe. “She’ll find a way to get us out.” She had to believe it was true.

But two days passed with no relief in sight. Their food ran out, and they had to ration their water drop by drop. The Nazis weren’t leaving. Instead, it sounded as though more men and equipment were moving in while the residents’ families were arriving to take them away. Miriam urged Klara and Tina to put their belongings in a back corner behind a pile of discarded furniture, creating a barricade where they could hide if the Nazis inspected the attic.

“What good will that do if we starve to death?” Klara asked. Miriam didn’t know.

On the fourth morning, Miriam heard Rietje throwing a tantrum outside her bedroom and guessed that her parents had come for her. “I want Christina!” she screamed. “I don’t want to play the hiding game! Tell her to come down!” Miriam’s chest squeezed in panic.

“Christina went home to her family,” Miss Hannie soothed, “and now you must go home with your papa too.”

“No, she’s hiding! She’s up there, and I want her to come down!”

“There’s nobody up there but the mice,” Miss Hannie said. “Come, Rietje. It’s time to go.”

Miriam motioned for Klara and Tina to creep across the attic with her as quietly as they could and hide behind the barricade. Terror filled every inch of her.

“Christina . . . !” Rietje’s screams grew farther away but they didn’t stop.

Miriam struggled to breathe. Her heart thumped loudly, painfully. They waited for several minutes, then she heard a louder thump as the attic hatch flipped open. “Take a very good look for those mice,” a voice from below said in German.