Searching for Home: The Impact of WWII on a Hidden Child

The war ends and Josje is returned to his parents. "Who are these people who call themselves my parents," he imagines. He is three years old and feels abandoned, confused and angry. He wants to return to his "real" parents who loved and sheltered him during the war. "My name is Pietje Dijkstra not Josje Gosler!" he states tearfully when goaded by his cousin.

As a Jew and a Hidden Child, his innocence protected him as much as his Christian family. At seven months of age, for his own safety as...