War Happens in Your Heart

By Frances Anne Turney

A historical fiction novel for young readers likened to Number The Stars and acclaimed by national and international reviewers for strong, poignant characterization and plot. War Happens In Your Heart is the story of the tumultuous, community-changing friendship of a mid-western girl and a German Jewish Kindertransport survivor during the final six months of WWII.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 28, 2007
• ISBN: 9781469100302

Frances Anne Turney

Frances Turney grew up in Michigan and lived many years in Alaska. She writes from her heart about what she knows and has learned through travel and research. Her poems and stories have been published in anthologies and in national magazines for adults and children. This is her first book. She lives now in the wooded hills of southern Oregon with her canine buddies, Pip and Percy.

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Copyright © 2007 by Frances Anne Turney.

Cover Art © 2007 by Natalie Yakel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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37179

Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

Dedication

This story is dedicated with admiration, love and great respect to all Kindertransport riders, especially Lotte, Ilse and Joe, and Alfred, who shared their memories.

PREFACE

Hanover, Germany, August, 1939

Leaving Home

The train jerked forward once, then again and again, each pause shorter than the one before. Inside the old passenger car seven year old Hannah pushed her nose against the grimy window, trying hard to hold Papa’s face in her sight. On the dark station platform parents pushed one another as they strained to see beloved faces inside the train. Fear held them back, away from soldiers guarding the steps.

Steam billowed from the engine and crept over the wooden station platform. Rusted wheels rolled. Hannah’s Papa melted away into this steam, into the crowd, into her own tears. She would never see her Papa again.

Long ago, when she was five, Hannah had lived with her mama and papa in a pleasant house on the edges of Hanover, Germany. Her father went to work at the typewriter assembly plant every weekday. Her mother stayed at home with Hannah, read to her, laughed with her, told her she loved her. They led a happy, ordinary life.

On Sundays in summer they would often carry a picnic lunch to a beautiful park in the city where towering chestnut trees blossomed with white flowers. The flowers grew in little clusters, each cluster shaped like a tree. On the tip of every blossom was a bright red dot, like balls on Christmas trees. Hannah called them Christmas trees, even though, in her family, they celebrated Hannukkah.

Held high by Papa’s sturdy arms, Hannah plucked her very own miniature trees.

Life changed. It was a slow change and, at first, Hannah did not notice. Papa stopped going away to work everyday. Mother no longer took her to fancy stores to buy her pretty dresses. They did not go to the park anymore.

One day German policemen came to their house in brown uniforms and black boots. With harsh, angry voices they gave orders to her mother and father. They gave them yellow cloth stars, and ordered them to sew them to their coats to wear whenever they went outside.

Sometimes, staring out of their dark house at the deep snow and the quiet streets Hannah wondered why. She even wondered if any of this could be her fault or the fault of her good father or mother.

It was not their fault, of course. Germany had a new leader, Adolph Hitler. This leader had plans for Germany. Hitler called Germans the master race. He believed that, to be true masters, Germany must cleanse itself of all inferior people. To him those people were some Christians, people who were mentally ill, and Jews like Hannah and her family. Especially Jews.

Many people believed him. Their belief grew so strong they agreed with Hitler when he said Germany should rule all of Europe. With lies, masses of marching, goose-stepping soldiers and machines of war they began to take over Poland and Czechoslovakia and other countries near Germany. World War II began.

This was not something a girl as young as Hannah could understand, but she did know when the police beat her father. She did know what it was like to be hungry. She learned that policemen, soldiers and some people who used to be their friends were now very dangerous. She learned to be afraid.

Her mother and father found a way to save the life of their daughter. People in England, Canada and the United States of America were helping Jewish children leave Germany. These distant friends learned Jewish people, even the children, were being treated harshly and many killed. They bargained with the German military authorities and arranged for children like Hannah to be taken through Holland by train and then by ship to England. It was a chance for safety and freedom, yet it was heartbreaking, too. Parents had to send the children only. No adults were allowed to leave in this way. The special trains and special cars on scheduled trains were called Kindertransports. Kinder translates as children, just as kindergarten is a German word for a class for young children.

Hannah’s parents told her they were sending her to live with her aunt and uncle in America and they would follow as soon as they could. She wasn’t happy to be going away alone to live with strangers. Why were her parents doing this to her? Why couldn’t they come with her?

When the night came for Hannah to leave, these unanswered questions were still in her heart.

CHAPTER 1

Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 1945

And Pass The Ammunition

I remember the day I, Katherine Anastasia O’Malley otherwise known as Katy, began to act like the