By Sahaana Mehta and Sabrina Cohen
1943-Nazi occupied holland.
Hanneke works on the black market and delivers forbidden or very hard-to-find items to people. One day, while on a delivery, one woman has a request. To find a missing person. A missing Jewish girl. Before the Nazis do. And if either of them gets caught by the Nazis, they’re dead. As I’m reading this book yet again, I remember everything I felt. The tears in my eyes, the ache in my heart, and the fear in my stomach. I felt Hanneke. Her fear, her guilt, and most of all, her heartbreak. Her boyfriend, Bas, had died in the war. She was forced to flirt with soldiers, the same exact ones that had torn her country–and her heart—apart. Everyone was scared, including Hanneke, and as she said, “Fear. That’s right. That was the odor I couldn’t place before. That’s the smell of my beautiful, breaking country.” She was especially scared to accept the task of finding a Jewish girl that was somewhere in Amsterdam, where if someone knew that Hanneke was trying to find her, one who should not be living, she would get killed. Not arrested, not beaten, not “relocated”, but killed. Killed. But even if Hanneke was scared, she was still brave. So she agreed to find the Girl in the Blue Coat.
