Innocence Denied – The War My Parents Did Not Hear
Publisher: KokBoekencentrum
You’re five, your parents are deaf, and it’s war
Full English text available
‘As soon as we could talk, Dick and I were our parents’ mouths and ears. We were always alert to the pounding of soldiers’ boots. If we heard their angry voices and footsteps outside, we would tell dad to hide quickly. Then he would drop everything from his hands and crawl into the recess under the stairs, where there were no more potatoes and flour in these times of scarcity.’
Five-year-old Johannes is the youngest of two sons in a family whose parents are both deaf. Then World War II breaks out. Johannes and his brother are not only their parents’ ears and mouths, but also have to guide the family through the war. Food on ration, stealing to survive, confrontations with occupiers, friendship with a Roma friend who disappears after a raid… An extremely personal document of life under German occupation. The story also gives a sharp picture of the lives of ordinary people in wartime.
