By I. Caroline Crocker
The WWII Books
Narrative Nonfiction
The World War II series of books are true stories ideal for readers who seek WWII novels with civilian perspectives and educators curating narrative nonfiction for high school and college. They are unique because they place an emphasis, not on the Holocaust, but on the resilience needed and the psychological aftermath of war.
The books are all about the author’s family of origin and are based on much research, but they read like fiction. Brave Face, co-written with her mother, Meta, is about Meta’s childhood in the Netherlands during the German occupation.
Unforgivable is about her father, Frits’s childhood in the same place.
Finally, still to be written, Dr. Crocker is working on a book about her father’s mother’s experience of WWII and the Holocaust. It will be called The Truth Was Different and will be published in 2026. The last book in this series will be about her maternal grandparents, titled Ordinary Courage.
A boy’s fight to rise above trauma, loss, and hatred
A powerful story of resilience, love, and surviving the unthinkable
The WWII Books
(that are out)
Not all victims wore stars. Some wore silence.
Little Frits finds his life totally changed when his father becomes seriously ill, the family moves country, and his mother places him and his brother in a children’s home. WWII begins, and the Netherlands is occupied. Bombing becomes his lullaby, and friends and family are murdered in Auschwitz.
Frits experiences illness, terror, overwhelming sadness, and rage. But when he grows up and is deprived of his lifelong dream, he reaches the end of his rope. Should Frits hold onto anger or shake off the fetters of his wrath, embrace love, and start afresh?
What if your childhood fear had a name, a face,
and a uniform?
As the daughter of a Dutch man and his German wife, Meta finds her life totally changed when WWII begins. Meta’s anxiety is exacerbated by der Stiefel, a Nazi soldier who haunts her. Life continues downhill until starvation renders the formerly vivacious child so weak that she doesn’t care if she dies.
After the war ends, poverty, prejudice, and PTSD dog her every step, and Meta finds herself unable to pursue her dream of becoming a physician. Should she give in to despair, just put on a brave face, or accept reality and work towards those goals that are still possible?
Unforgivable is one of those historical reads to be included in everybody’s history of WWII and the Holocaust. Not only is it beautifully written, but the story is almost unbelievable in the history of man’s inhumanity to man. Frits’ strength throughout his life and yet his reminder to himself that he must forgive is a cautionary tale for us all.
This is the story everybody should read: we can survive despite some of life’s most difficult circumstances. And we can thrive as well. And Frits was a real human being — not a made-up superhero! Frits is one of those people we need to learn from and model in our own lives.
I’m so grateful his daughter took all of the time it surely must have to chronicle her father’s life for all of us to understand. Run, don’t walk, to get this book!
Children see things – and sometimes adults miss what children see. Brave Face gives a front-row seat to the view of a child in the midst of war’s losses, hardships, stresses, family dislocations, deprivations, little joys, and faith’s questions and challenges.
This view of WWII is unlike any others I have read, and I really appreciate the freshness and survival spirit of Meta and her family in near-impossible circumstances. They survived what family and friends didn’t – but they were shaped by both the horrors outside their door and the little happinesses inside…..