This is a story of 'ordinary' people – ordinary people who were caught up in the cataclysm of events in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. A discovery of letters that had been carefully kept for decades since that time led to the uncovering of a family story that took the author on a journey in the footsteps of her husband's grandparents through Germany, Belgium, and France.

Hermann Hartog (1887–1942) was a Jewish teacher in the north-west of Germany at a time of increasing anti-Semitism. He and his wife, Henny (1897–1942) recognised that Germany was becoming an unsafe place for Jews and sent their daughters to England for safety. As a leader of his community, Hermann stayed for as long as he could.

After 'Kristallnacht' in November 1938, Hermann was arrested with other Jewish men and sent to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. He was later released on condition that he would leave the country. Hermann and Henny fled Germany for Brussels, but when Belgium was invaded in 1940 they were sent to Paris, and then found refuge in a village in the south-west of France. Here, 'ordinary' people gave them shelter, work and friendship – and shared their lives during the dark days of 1941 and 1942.

When French police – acting on the orders of the Vichy government and the Nazi occupiers of France – arrested Hermann and Henny, it was part of a round-up of Jews to deport them for extermination. After a long journey, they were murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942.

An active memory of the Hartog family lives on. In France and Germany, 'ordinary' people remember their names, commemorate their legacy, and work to build communities where tolerance, acceptance, and friendship can thrive.