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The Vision of Antje Baumann
It is May 1940 in Holland. As the Baumann family realizes that Hitler’s war has suddenly become their war, sirens begin blaring as a squadron of airplanes flies over Oosterbeek. Antje, Gerrit, and Cornelis Baumann are too young to understand what is happening around them. All they know is that they feel powerless as they watch their father cry. As the Germans invade, the Baumanns strive to maintain a quiet life. But as war comes to their street and doorstep, they soon recognize that keeping a low profile is not an option. Antje, Gerrit, and Cornelis each respond in their own way to their new crisis. Just as the French and Belgian armies surrender to the Nazis, little Antje loses her sight, prompting a chain of events that causes all the Baumanns to realize that surviving as a family in a land of mayhem and death is a greater challenge than they ever imagined. In this historical novel, a Dutch family struggles to endure the chaos of war after Holland is invaded by the Nazis.
Reviews
Power (Black ’47) shines a searing light on the torments experienced by Holland’s citizens during WWII, focusing on a Catholic Oosterbeek family’s trials during the Nazi occupation. Wim and Corrie Baumann have three children, and the oldest—Cornelis, or “Nelis”—tells the story of his younger sister Antje, who, “from birth... had brushed with death so many times” and lost sight in one eye at age five before losing her vision completely a few years later. After that, she foresees incidents small and large, such as her near inclusion in a roundup of Jews. While the town suffers the indignation and then atrocities of the occupation, the persecution of Jews, and a battle, Antje often turns to Nelis with insights about their family’s decision to become part of the dangerous Resistance, including the creation of a hideout in their home and heart-stopping raids. Nelis’s narration is stark, and his straightforward observations deepen the chill of this unsettling story of Nazi brutality and unbearable family losses. (BookLife)
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