LYNN — Luc De Brouckere of Lynn and his grandsons from Chicago published a book about their family’s experience during the Holocaust after attending weekly meetings over Zoom and gathering information from family documents.
“We were inspired to write the book to learn more about our ancestors and about World War II,” said Ian De Brouckere, 15. “We started this project hoping it would be a published article, but never believed it would become a book.”
“Running from the Gestapo” is a story that revolves around two ordinary citizens, a teacher, who is based more on De Brouckere’s wife Francine’s side of the family, and a fisherman, who is based primarily on De Brouckere’s father. The characters departed from Belgium and set out for Dunkirk, while trying to join the British forces.
The family started writing after De Brouckere recovered documents of both his wife’s family and materials on how ordinary citizens managed to flee from the hands of the Gestapo. Through the writing process, his grandsons, who refer to De Brouckere as “Opa,” said they learned a lot about not only what the soldiers went through during that time period, but civilians as well.
“I hope that people get the citizen’s perspective to not only understand the soldiers in the battles, but also how the war affected so many people,” Ian said. “It can also relate to how the war in Ukraine has an effect on citizens as well.”
De Brouckere and his wife, who are originally from the Flemish region of Belgium known as “Flanders,” moved to Lynn 10 years ago and reside at their home near Red Rock Park.
Writing with their grandfather was a way to stay connected with him during the pandemic since they live in different states. Like the book, the distance between the De Brouckere family is over 1,000 miles.
Niels, 16, said that many of his friends read the book and found it to be “informative,” as it “adds perspective to ordinary people.”
“I think the whole process has been cool since not a lot of people my age can say they have a book published worldwide,” he said.
The book was published on May 21, and is available in stores and online.
De Brouckere said that he likes to see the feedback people have for the book, as he said it is bound to “bring back memories” for people who lived during that time period.
“It is the kind of book that surprises people because it adds real value and is written by young authors,” he said.
Rachel Galatis can be reached at [email protected].
