This post is part of an after-action report of Unconditional Surrender! (Salvatore Vasta, GMT Games) and therefore entirely fictitious.
Brussels, June 07, 1940
We had a bit more than two weeks. I knew the Nazis would come back, and back with a vengeance they are. The parades have been a more emphatic show of force than ever, the boots are clicked on the ground more forceful than ever, and the delivery of punishment from slaps to executions is faster than ever. We shall not see peace nor freedom as long as the swastika flies over the Grand-Place.
Léon, Sarah, Hannah, Simon, and Myriam have not come to school yesterday and today. Nobody dares ask where they are.
I realize that if this diary was found, I might be in deep trouble as well. Judging from what I have seen the past two days, my life might be forfeit in that case. The safest way would surely be to stop writing and burn this little notebook. But stopping to write means giving up on life altogether. So I shall not concern myself with the thought of being found, and rather with the question of where to get more paper in this time of scarcity and rationing everywhere – until my days end or these devils are forced to go.
German troops in Brussels, 1940. Image: Bundesarchiv, image 146-1969-129-01 / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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