This novel was inspired by actual events:

The Lebensborn program, initiated by Heinrich Himmler and put in place in Germany from 1933, and in the occupied countries during 1940–1941. It is estimated that approximately eight thousand children were born in Lebensborn homes in Germany, between eight and twelve thousand in Norway, several hundred in Austria, in Belgium and in France.

The kidnapping and Germanisation of Polish children. (In addition to Ukrainian children, and those from the Baltic countries.) It is estimated that the number of children forcibly taken from their families was more than two hundred thousand.

The work of the UNRRA (the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), which, along with other aid organisations for displaced persons, implemented ways for some of these children to be reunited with their families after the war.

My hero, Konrad, however, was not modelled on any living person. He is entirely my own invention. But Lukas does have a counterpart in historical reality. He is based on Salomon Perel. In 1941, Salomon was a Jewish teenager who, by some miracle, managed to pass himself off as an Aryan. He fought on the Eastern front in a German unit for a year, and then entered one of the elite schools for the Hitler Youth movement. Unlike Lukas, he survived.

A number of the characters—some are simply cited, others play a more important role in my story—are real historical figures:

MAX SOLLMANN, the director of the Lebensborn program.

GREGOR EBNER, the SS chief of medicine, who not only ran several Lebensborn maternity hospitals, but also supervised the selection and Germanisation of thousands of kidnapped children.

JOHANNA SANDER, director of the Kalish home.

The Braune Schwestern, the ‘BROWN SISTERS’, who orchestrated the kidnapping of children.

HERR TESCH, FRAU VIERMETZ, FRAU MÜLLER (NSV, National Socialist People’s Welfare), KARL BRANDT (Hitler’s personal doctor), his wife, ANNI REHBORN.

In 1947–1948, Sollmann, Ebner and their accomplices stood trial at Nuremberg, but the Allied military tribunal did not uphold the ‘criminal nature’ of the Lebensborn program. They were released after the trial.

I would particularly like to pay homage to the remarkable book by Marc Hillel, Au nom de la race (Of Pure Blood), which provided me with indispensable material for the writing of my novel. Marc Hillel’s book is, I believe, the only one to gather together all the information about the Lebensborn program.

A Woman in Berlin, a memoir, was also a huge source of inspiration when I was writing about the experiences of my two heroes in the ruins of Berlin at the end of the war.

The following books also provided extremely valuable source material:

Napola, Les Écoles d’Élite du Troisième Reich, Herma Bouvier, Claude Geraud, L’Harmattan, 2009.

Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Antony Beevor, Viking Press, 2002.

Les Fiancées du Führer, Will Berthold, Presses de la Cité, 1961.

Europa, Europa, Sally Perel, Ramsay, 1990.

Children of Vienna, Robert Neumann, V. Gollanz, 1946.

The Erl-King, Michel Tournier, Collins, 1972.

I should also list the many internet sites I consulted, but I was unfortunately unable to make a record of them all.

Thank you to Zosia Orlicka for her translations from the Polish.

Lastly, a very warm thank you to Thierry Lefèvre. Several years ago, he suggested I write this novel and he has guided my work with his constant encouragement.