ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arlette deMonceau Michaelis lived in Brussels, Belgium, during the German occupation of that country in World War II (1940-1945). During those war years, Arlette, a teenager, and her family, parents, brother, and sister resisted the Germans in many ways: bringing home contraband butter and bacon from the countryside; harassing Germans on the streetcars, tripping them and setting fire to their raincoats, and publishing anti-Nazi propaganda in newsletters. Her parents and brother were for a time imprisoned in Saint Gilles Prison for their activities. Then Arlette and her sister, Ginette, were on their own, dealing with frigid temperatures and meager rations of food. During these war years, Arlette, whose parents' rental apartment was often used to shelter Jews, became a courier and aid to Father Bruno Reynders, the Belgian monk, who rescued Jews. After the war Arlette worked as a translator for Belgian Airlines, SABENA. She met and married her husband, Lansing, a sales manager for the airlines. For a time the couple lived between New York and Cape May County, New Jersey, eventually settling in New Jersey. Arlette then taught in Avalon Elementary School. She is now retired. Arlette enjoys retirement, traveling with children and grandchildren and continuing to visit family in Europe.

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