Butterflies in the Barbedwire

During the Second World War in Germany under Hitler's regime, thousands and thousands of disabled children and adults were killed under the T4 programme. The aim to build a perfect race desecrated family life and tore them apart.Heidi and Sylvia are eleven year old twins living in a rural town in Bavaria, Southern Germany. They live with their three brothers and mother and father. They also have a family secret that can never be revealed, as well as the growing concern over Sylvia's polio disability. It is February 1945, when the Breu's receive a letter instructing them to relinquish Sylvia to a 'treatment' facility in Berlin. At first and as much as they are heartbroken, they all believe that she is being treated for the polio. That is until Heidi breaks into the medical clinic with her brother Oliver, stealing a letter concerning Sylvia's part in the euthanasia programme.It also appears that the secret is also out about their apparently Jewish grandfather. Things become rather fraught, so much so that Heidi plans to rescue Sylvia from the Berlin hospital. The thing is it is five hundred kilometres away from home. While Heidi is planning her 'trip' she is unaware that her parents also know about the euthanasia programme and were already making plans to find out what happened to Sylvia too. Under the dictatorship of Hitler everything is hard to do and every action having to be explained.Heidi heads out into the still of the black night where she hitchhikes to Sonthofen over night. When she arrives she also has to stow herself away on many trains to Berlin. On the way she meets Stefan who hides her away in his cellar . The whole journey is fraught with danger. She also has to find a way to hide her stray cat that she has befriended along the way, naming him Felix.When she eventually arrives in Berlin many days later, she is hungry, frightened yet determined to rescue her sister, not even knowing if she is still alive. By chance and luck she meets a young boy who helps her with the rescue. There are twists and turns at many stages of the book and will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole read.