As the Nazi threat spread across Europe, prominent English citizens established a school for traumatized refugee Jewish children. Pupils and teachers alike showed resilience in the face of war-time deprivations, facing down the suspicions of locals while mastering the intricacies of the English language. The German-born administrators, themselves refugees, helped the children through loneliness and fear with a progressive-inspired education which they graced with kindness. The teenagers watched the orange skies lighted by Luftwaffe bombings of London forty miles to the north yet, still ignorant of the horrors of the Holocaust and the fate of their parents, they came of age in a place open to fun and comradeship. In the process, they formed unbreakable, lifelong bonds.
Barbara Wolfenden has divided her professional career as a writer/manager for a major computer company, and earlier, as co-founder of Tampa Preparatory School, where she taught Spanish and held the position of Director of Studies. She is the author of Are We There Yet?, a collection of stories about women and issues of equality and fulfillment in the post women’s lib era. She lives in a small town west of Boston, and enjoys the company of her friends and family while continuing to write short stories that deal with working women’s issues. A former UN Guide and New England coastal sailor, she has traveled much of the world. She holds an MA in Spanish Language and Literature from Brown University.
