When he came home from school that day, he was surprised that his home just wasn't there any more. Sure he had heard the sirens in the distance and he was aware that the Germans were attacking the city of Rotterdam. However, he had never expected to come home and discover that he had nothing any more than the clothes he was wearing.

Maarten really wanted to go visit the Oorlogs Verzets Museum Rotterdam so I took him there this Sunday afternoon. He had been waiting all week long, and every evening when I brought him to bed he would tell me that there were only so many days before we would go.

Once we arrived there, we received our own personal tour from a guide who was a survivor of the awful bombardments during the outbreak of World War II. He was seventy-seven years old and had alot of personal details to share with us and it was heart-breaking to hear of all the atrocities during that period of history. He was Lennart's age when they deported him to Germany for forced labor.

With a scratchy voice and slightly trembling hands he relived the many experiences anew so that Maarten would learn and be aware and prevent this from ever happening again.

Maybe some day humanity will have learned its lesson, but until then we will all have to be patient and do our best to survive from day to day.