I was born in 1927, near Munich. I had wonderful parents, and a lovely house located near the Nymphenburg palace. When Hitler came to power, we lived under the shadow of the Nazis. Day and night, they frightened us. They took away the rights of Jewish civilians. In the wee hours of the morning, trucks were seen escorting innocent and poor Jews out of their houses, and off to concentration camps such as Ravensbruck and Auschwitz. My parents were Christians, but  they stopped at nothing for me to cut ties with my  Jewish friends from the fear of being arrested.

But in my rebellious ways, I rejected religion.

I never really had any friends after that.

They always came and left in the blink of an eye, and I had long forgotten their names.

  In 1936, My parents left me for a business trip to Amsterdam.

I never saw them again from that day.

I remembered  My mother's joyous and playful smile as she stepped out of the door. I remembered my father's stern look as he held his suitcase at his side and left with my mother.

I was entrusted to stay in the house, for I had no next of kin nor relatives to live with temporarily.

"I promise that we'll come back," assured my mother." it'll only be a few weeks."

Who knew I could never see them again?

There was something that made me uneasy when they left.

a feeling that I would not see them for a long time.

And  those weeks turned into months.

And  the months turned  into years.

And that was when I met the Engels.

Fraü  Ansel Engel and Fraülein zemirah Engel were a  very vivacious couple who were on holiday with Matteo. The first time I met him, he was a Petite and shy, cheerful and curious child. I saw them whilst I was wandering around the pavements when they came over to ask for directions to the nearest Stadtplatz. They asked me what I was doing here without my parents' supervision and I explained to them that they were on an e