Inez's War: A true story set in occupied Belgium during World War II
A true story
The Second World War seen through the wide-open eyes of a child, filled with horror and bewilderment.
Inez is still a child when Nazi Germany invades Belgium in the summer of 1940. Her sheltered life as the youngest of an Antwerp family comes to an abrupt end. Material need and life-threatening circumstances cause daily tensions and both the parents and the children find themselves in a maelstrom of uncontrollable events. The father, a couturier and tailor for German soldiers, follows the Germans as a forced laborer on their retreat to the east at the end of the war. Inez's mother seeks protection from a German officer, a survival reflex that will be held against her once she returns to liberated Belgium.
Inez grows from child to adolescent in this turbulent wartime. Her experiences as a teenager threaten to be traumatized by the inhumane conditions in refugee camps and later by ruthless repression.
Inez's experiences coincide completely with those of the writer Rhea van der Vloet, who reconstructs her bruised youth in this gripping biographical novel without hesitation or false sentiments. Rhea van der Vloet survived the war as a refined young woman, who, in her more mature years, drew from her trials the dynamism and idealism to dedicate herself to the fate of homeless children in South America. A disturbing story that is also a tribute to human resilience and strength in spite of dark and difficult times.