Don't Betray Me

It is 1943. The war is raging, but eight-year-old Peter’s life continues much the same as it always has. He knows that the Germans are after the Jews, but there are not many Jews in Amsterdam-West.

When an English plane crashes into Peter’s house, he and his family have to look for another place to live. They find a house on the Oudeschans in the centre of Amsterdam, in the middle of the Jewish Quarter, an area previously inhabited by Jews but now largely empty because of the war.

Then, a dark-haired girl suddenly appears in his room in the middle of the night, claiming that Peter lives in her house, and the reality of the war begins to mingle with his imagination. The girl seems to come from a different reality and she gives him an important and very secret assignment. But time is running out: a harsh winter is approaching, there is no food, and the war is growing grimmer by the day. Can Peter find what the girl is looking for before the Germans get their hands on her?

Melinda Braaksma has crafted the many childhood memories of her father, Henk Braaksma, into a fictional story about innocence, hope and friendship, against the historical backdrop of Amsterdam in World War II, with one crucial question: What would you do?