A Nazi motorcycle rumbled up the street outside. Maaike drew away from the window as if trying to hide behind the curtain. “She’s so jumpy and fearful,” Lena said softly. “The Nazis stole her childhood. She and Bep can’t even remember a time when there were no planes overhead or firefights and explosions during the night.”

“I can barely remember, myself,” Truus said. As Bep played with the doll she carried everywhere, pretending to feed her imaginary food, Truus seemed to be studying Bep’s face as if trying to find a family resemblance. “She’s a beautiful child. Are you and Pieter going to raise her as your own after the war, or will Ans take her back?”

Lena’s arms tightened around Bep. She’d grown to love this child as her own. She knew there was a chance that Bep’s parents were still alive and would return for her after the war. For their sake and for Bep’s, she prayed that they would survive. But that meant Lena would have to give her up, and she knew a piece of her heart would tear away when she did. Once again, the magnitude of the pain and suffering the Nazis had inflicted on the world —and on her —nearly overwhelmed Lena. She stroked Bep’s dark hair. Truus was waiting for her reply. “I’m not sure,” she finally said.

The rumbling motorcycle and painful memories had stirred the ashes of Lena’s hatred, reigniting the flames. Because of the Nazis, Bep had been separated from her family, just as Lena had been. Because of them, Lena’s life and Bep’s life would never be the same. “I hate them,” she said, spitting out the words like poison. “I hate what they’ve done to us and to our country. I hope the Allies show them no mercy when they win.”

Truus drank her coffee. “Is there still no news of Ans or the rest of your family?”

Lena shook her head. “That’s what I hate them for the most —for taking the people I love away from me.” Lena had visited her father’s grave before coming here, and as she’d gazed at the scarred earth, she’d prayed that there wouldn’t be any new graves beside Papa’s when the war ended.

“I think everyone in town feels the same way you do about the Nazis.”

They finished their coffee. Lena slid Bep off her lap and stood. “I should go. Thanks for the coffee.”