Publication Date: July 21, 2025
An emotional insight into the fate of the more than twenty million forced laborers in Hitler’s Third Reich—an impossible love for a German woman and the endurance of the human spirit to find a way to freedom.
Bochum, Germany, April 1943: While her husband has been at war for three years, twenty-five-year-old Marie Heinrich ekes out a living on a small farm. Her goats, whose milk and cheese help her survive, are her pride and joy. Until the SS confiscates the animals and Marie is forced to take a job at the nearby Schwarzenberg coal mine. Lyon, France, April 1943: Adrien Rocheau’s shoulder wound from the war has barely healed, when the SS arrests and forces him on a train to Germany. In Bochum, he is assigned to the Schwarzenberg mine. Since he speaks fluent German—his mother is from Alsace—he occasionally escapes the claustrophobic pit as a translator. With Adrien’s support, Marie, who registers the newly arrived forced laborers, finds a way to communicate with the strangers.
Grateful for his help, she slips the Frenchman a little bread and a spare shirt. But socializing with foreign workers is strictly forbidden and punishable by law. While Adrien and his comrades slave away up to fourteen hours a day and quickly grow weaker, Marie searches for a way to help the men. If only it weren’t for her spying neighbor and her controlling boss.
Amidst the horrors of World War II, two unlikely people find love.
Author Annette Oppenlander showcases the plight of foreigners deported to Germany by the Nazis and forced to work in Coal Dreams. The book is an installment in the Moving Love Stories of WWII Germany series.
Marie Heinrich tries to run the farm alone after her husband is drafted, but when the Nazis take her beloved goats three years later, she has no choice but to find work at the area coal mine. There, she meets Adrien, a French prisoner who speaks German.
The conditions for the workers highlight the Nazi disdain for non-Germans. Starving and pest-ridden, these men were forced to labor underground. Interactions between Marie and Adrien would clearly be forbidden outside of his necessary service as an interpreter.
The author does an excellent job building the layers of the story, especially with the addition of the nosy neighbor.
Coal Dreams illustrates an ill-fated love between two people struggling to hold on to hope.
Annette Oppenlander is an award-winning writer, literary coach and educator. As a bestselling historical novelist, Oppenlander is known for her authentic characters and stories based on true events, coming alive in well-researched settings. Having lived in Germany the first half of her life and the second half in various parts of the U.S., Oppenlander inspires readers by illuminating story questions as relevant today as they were in the past.
Oppenlander’s bestselling true WWII story, Surviving the Fatherland, received eight nominations/awards. Uniquely, Oppenlander weaves actual historical figures and events into her plots, giving readers a flavor of true history while enjoying a captivating story.
Oppenlander shares her knowledge through writing workshops at colleges, libraries, festivals and schools. She also offers vivid presentations and author visits. The mother of fraternal twins and a son, she now lives with her husband and Kromfohrländer Archie in the beautiful Münsterland in Germany.
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