When They Made Us Leave

WWII book cover by annette oppenlanderNow Available – The New WWII Drama about the Children’s War

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ISBN: 978-3-948100-08-7
Paperback $14.99, eBook $4.99
Paperback Page Count: 300
Publication Date: November 15, 2019

When They Made Us Leave tells the touching love story of Hilda and Peter, whose budding relationship ends abruptly when they are forced to attend separate evacuation camps during WWII. Each confronted with terror and cruelty as well as unexpected kindness, they must rise above to survive the war and find each other once more.

Solingen, 1943: As bombs carpet Germany and fourteen-year old Hilda is falling in love with her childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Peter, he excitedly takes off to an evacuation camp in Pomerania, six hundred miles from home. Though Peter soon finds that his expectations are far from reality, he is ordered to write happy letters home, even when things take a turn for the worse and a new Hitler youth leader attempts to convert camp into a military battalion.

Meanwhile, Hilda must unwillingly accompany her classmates to a cloister in Bavaria run by a draconian Abbess. There Hilda struggles to overcome her homesickness and yearning for Peter while helping a classmate hide her bedwetting accidents.

“Ms. Oppenlander documents the dark, wartime transformation of the children from their youth to adulthood…A must read!” InD’Tale Magazine

As Germany is buried under rubble and supplies shorten, Peter lands at an inn near Gdansk. By now, all he wants is to go home. But his new teacher, a staunch national socialist, deems their place safe despite the refugees from the east whispering of German defeat by an advancing Russian Army.

When the cloister is converted into a German field hospital, enemy planes destroy Hilda’s homebound train and kill her teacher. Weeks later, tired and hungry, she arrives home to find her mother safe. But Peter has not returned, nor is there any news of him. Refusing to believe the worst, she must survive in a barely recognizable world.

Set against the backdrop of the wide-sweeping and much-loathed children’s evacuation program of Hitler’s Germany, award-winning Surviving the Fatherland author, Annette Oppenlander, offers another heart-wrenching contribution to the history of the children’s war.

Five Stars

“Oppenlander masterfully weaves historical facts with fiction to present a grim yet optimistic tale of cruelty, grief, love, kindness, and redemption. The mood is somber from page one, but I was sucked into the story due to her incredible storytelling skills and true-to-life characters…highly recommended.” Readers’ Favorite 

Explores themes of war, children of war, the evacuation program (Kinderlandverschickung), survival and hope, German history between 1943 and 1945

Perfect for

  • Fans of Historical Fiction
  • War and Survival Stories
  • Children and War
  • Fans of WWII History
  • Students 7th grade and up