War Child

Leni is an illegitimate child born in pre-World War II Germany in a small town steeped in superstition.

Spurned by her Catholic grandfather and living in poverty, Leni joins the Hitler Youth before leaving school at fourteen to support her mother and younger brothers. With no-one to protect her, a sadistic employer forces her to submit to secret systematic rape or face having her mother interned. Leni quickly learns to stay silent and keep her secret. As the war grinds to an agonising climax, Leni’s family flees the advance of the Red Army. Surviving on her wits, she is transformed from a meek, cowed girl to protector of her family. In the post-war chaos she falls pregnant to her boyfriend and the little family finally escapes the devastated continent with migration to Australia under the International Refugee Organisation program. Now isolated in an alien land, they endure the hardships of the Bonegilla Migrant Hostel and face the enormous task of beginning a new life.

But Leni’s secrets remain and a stunning deathbed revelation sends her daughter, Annette, on a complex search that crosses three continents in a bid to unravel the web of intrigue that protects her mother’s ultimate secret. War Child reveals one woman’s enormous courage and desperation to protect those she loved most … right until the final, extraordinary moment of her life.

About the Authors

Annette Janic has worked as a television production and program acquisitions professional in genres ranging from live sport to documentaries, game shows, lifestyle and reality, while travelling extensively and living in Australia, Singapore, Dubai and India. She is a first generation Australian with parents and an older brother who arrived as refugees following World War II.

Catherine McCullagh is a highly respected editor and author. She has worked as an editor and advisor on numerous military and Australian history books and has two successful non-fiction books, Willingly into the Fray, War Child and Dancing with Deception, a historical fiction also set in WWII. She has a Bachelor of Arts and after a 20 year career in the Army as a teacher and linguist now follows her passion as a writer and editor.