As a child, I had read a series of memoirs by a Dutch woman whose family hid Jewish families in their home.
(They were written for an adult audience. My parents attended a church which had a self-service library full of books unsuitable for children and no supervision of which books people checked out.)
After reading the memoirs, I genuinely believed as a child that
- Nazis were still a genuine threat in Australia in the 1980s
- Nazis came and took away children for no reason (the fact that they only took *Jewish* children hadn't been clear in the memoir, partly because the author and her sister, who were Dutch Christians, also both ended up in camps as teenagers)
I used to go around the house regularly and collect any evidence that I existed - photos of me, artwork by me, toys - and hide it in the linen cupboard so that if Nazis came they wouldn't know that I was hiding in the roof cavity.
no subject
(They were written for an adult audience. My parents attended a church which had a self-service library full of books unsuitable for children and no supervision of which books people checked out.)
After reading the memoirs, I genuinely believed as a child that
- Nazis were still a genuine threat in Australia in the 1980s
- Nazis came and took away children for no reason (the fact that they only took *Jewish* children hadn't been clear in the memoir, partly because the author and her sister, who were Dutch Christians, also both ended up in camps as teenagers)
I used to go around the house regularly and collect any evidence that I existed - photos of me, artwork by me, toys - and hide it in the linen cupboard so that if Nazis came they wouldn't know that I was hiding in the roof cavity.