On the run: A Dutch Boy Rescues an American Pilot in Occupied Holland *SIGNED*

In 1944, Frans, is a twelve-year-old boarding school student taking care of a band of ponies when an American airman is shot down over occupied Holland. Frans rescues Bill. While trying to bring him to a safe place, they are both nearly captured by the Germans. On the run, they survive a number of harrowing experiences. This book relates in graphic detail how people survived the occupation, the hunger winter, separation, displacement, and the loss of family, friends and homes. It is a story of friendships, of people taking care of each other, of Germans who took care of the Dutch and of Dutchmen who were deceitful. The boy has to come to grips with good and evil, coming of age in a difficult time.

Casey Willems was four years old when war came to his native Holland in 1940. As a child, he lived through the deprivations of war and its aftermath. His memories are the guiding force for this book. Several decades later, he came to this country and worked in the hotel industry. It did not take long for the author to turn his hobby into a business, and he became well-known in New Orleans for his pottery. Hurricane Katrina brought the people of New Orleans tragedy, confusion, hopelessness, the loss of homes, friends, and dislocation. But as in most dire situations, there were people who acted nobly. These events awoke slumbering memories in Mr. Willems of similar events, along with a resolve that what had happened to the people of Holland half a century before not be forgotten, particularly by younger generations. Mr. Willems and his wife Conny, live in New Orleans.