camille calhoun

In September 1939, Effie Reinhardt Kohl is like every other seventeen-year-old German youth. She has her circle of friends, her family, her dates, and her enjoyment of all things important to teenage girls. But as Hitlers war machine begins its path of destruction, Effies carefree existence is interrupted as she is quickly escorted into an adulthood she is not prepared to face.

Some seventy-two years later, Effie is living in a nursing home when she decides to disclose a long-held secret to a nursing assistant with the hope of finding understanding. As the harsh truth is revealed, Effie retells the events that pulled her kicking and screaming into the cruel grip of Hitlers new Germany. It ultimately transformed her from an innoncent teen to a traitor who harbored Jews and a murderer. Unfortunately, this is a truth her children have never known. As her story slowly surfaces, Effie is left to wonder whether they will understand her motives and find forgiveness, or despise her for her part in the betrayal so many others shunned.

In this historical novel, an elderly woman journeys into the past in order to gain understanding and forgiveness for her traitorous role as a German girl thrust into an unimaginable life.