About

Stephen Weiner's first book, Dearest Ones recounts how his mother, Bella Flora Wach,a child during the Holocaust in Belgium, survived by hiding first with her family when the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, and then surviving on her own once she separated from her family. Through a remarkable series of 25 letters found shortly before her death in 1992, the author and Bella's son translated her original letters in French, smuggled to her parents in hiding in the Northern part of the country, while she remained hidden in different safe houses in the southern part of the country. Once translated, these letters illustrated the day-to-day hopes, dreams, fears and challenges of a young girl living by her own wits with strangers who cared for her. Each letter comes with a description of events leading up to the letter and provides context to the reader.