Libby always thought she knew her father Daniel's story- how he came to the US after WWII and how he raised her alone from the age of four- but all that's just blown up. The DOJ believes he may actually be Hans, who worked at the Sobibor camp in Poland. It doesn't matter that he's 93. Libby has to decide what to do- whether to know the truth or turn her head. This moves back and forth between Libby's dilemma and Daniel/Hans story during the war. It's emotional and thought provoking, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Great read, especially for book clubs.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Bookouture and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own..


Thrilling and entertaining with a touch of heartbreak.

This was the first book I’ve read by Kate Hewitt. I absolutely loved it and can’t stop thinking about it. I read it in one day.
For the last 10 years Libby’s 96 year old father, Daniel has lived with her & her family. Life is pretty near perfect & she enjoys how close her father is with her kids. Then one day a government official knocks on their door claiming that he believes Daniel is a Nazi who worked at a death camp in Poland. Except things don’t add up for Libby. Her sweet, loving father raised her by himself after her mother left them. He has never mentioned anything like this and she just can’t believe he’d even be capable of such hideous & horrible crimes. So she sets out to find proof that that isn’t him but sadly, that’s not the proof she finds.
The story goes back & forth between present & past and and I very much enjoyed watching this story unfold although some parts were truly heartbreaking.

What would you do if …

someone from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Department of Justice knocked on your door one day and informed you that there’s a warrant for your father’s arrest for Nazi war crimes perpetrated in Poland during WW2?

Your Dad. A loving man who single-handedly raised you from when you were 4 years old? A man who isn’t capable of hate. A man who has mentioned nothing of this to anyone. Your Dad. The man who taught you to tell the truth. The man who can’t even kill a spider for you.

Did I mention he’s 93 years old?

Oh, the most important part. The officer asks you to help him find incontrovertible proof. WHAT?! Yes, help him put your father on trial by finding proof of his guilt.

What would you do?

Elizabeth Trent faces this agonizing question, and, regardless of her answer, she and her family willl continue to face the fallout from decades of lies. Can you imagine the anguish and the soul-searching involved in having to turn-in your father?

Which camp do you belong to?

Camp One: “Does he really need to pay for these decades-old crimes at his age?”
Camp Two: “Everyone must face the consequences of their actions. That is the nature of justice.”

SPECTACULARLY written, this contender for my most cherished read of 2022 needs to be on every historical fiction readers list. Hewitt knows how to put her readers in the action and you’ll feel every single moment of anguish Elizabeth experiences. Hewitt will show you that every choice we make, whether good or bad, has ripple effects. I will remember this book for a very long time.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke

I was gifted this advance copy by Bookouture and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A very moving and heart breaking story. Really enjoyed this book, very well written. Easy to read and it pulls you in right from the start.

A fabulous, profound read. How do you cope and hold a family together when you find out your father is a wanted war criminal? This is a carefully constructed novel around that theme with a major emphasis on coming to terms with grief, loss and forgiveness. It is great to see a focus on Sobibor. The story of the escape from there of @ 300 people, the biggest escape from a concentration camp in ww2 is not known well enough. It demonstrates that victims of this genocide were not passive, but that they fought demonstrating huge courage and dignity in the face of cruel inhumanity. Inspirational and related in this book. This alone makes the book a worthwhile read, but there is so much more to the novel than just that. It’s a must read!

“Decisions and dilemmas”
This story is told in duel timeline of Kate in present time and Hans, her father, during the war. How will Kate react with finding out a long hidden secret of her fathers?
I have to say, this is a heartbreaking, sad yet uplifting story. When We Were Innocent is based around a true story. Reading stories about the atrocities during WW2 is never easy. This story was so well researched, so thought provoking, so heartbreaking…..I was in tears quite a few times.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WW2.
Kate Hewitt is one of my favorite authors. Her writing always pulls me in to the point of no return. Once I start a Kate Hewitt book, I can’t stop reading until the very last page. With each book I read by her, I say this is the best book. With that said……this is my “new” best book by Kate Hewitt book.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and author, Kate Hewitt, for this wonderful opportunity to read this arc for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What an emotional roller coaster!!!! I can’t tell you how many times this book made me tear up! The ending was simply beautiful. Loved this so much!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this new book by Kate Hewitt. All I can start with is Wow! What an excellent book which left me with tears at the end. It was a really interesting and chock filled with history surrounding a horrible time in our world's history, the Holocaust. The characters were well developed and as the reader you can not help but be sucked into their worlds. I have already put many more of this author's books on my TBR list. I totally recommend it.

Great book. One of the best I've read this year. I usually don't like books that are historical but this was fantastic. I couldn't stop reading , had to see how it ended. I can't wait to get my hands on more books by Kate Hewitt.

An absolute compelling read from Kate Hewitt. I could not put this one down despite the difficult to read content at times. A young woman's family life is shattered when she is contacted by a lawyer intending to bring charges against her 96 year old father for war crimes he committed in 1943 when it is alleged he worked in the death camps in Germany to eradicate the Jews. While Libby is certain this is untrue to begin with she is soon faced with compelling evidence against her loving father who was her only parent
Torn between supporting him and doing the right thing, Linby must make a difficult decision. Libby's life is impacted in every way and every relationship that matters to her suffers. The book flashes back to the time when her father was in Germany and we the reader have insight as to how it was at the time . Was he to blame for his part,, is it black and white.. a tough book to read at times because of the truth behind the material but an absolute must read..

This was an enjoyable and sometimes heart wrenching tale about the decisions that are made and the consequences they can have not just at the time but for generations to come too. It was well written with a good level of characters development. I really liked it.

Lovely storyline about doing the right thing,and how it can affect future generations and its far reaching consequences to dveryone involved.
Well written,good description of all the characters,about a sensitive subject.

WHEN WE WERE INNOCENT by KATE HEWITT is a WW11 novel with a difference and I cannot recommend it highly enough for the incredible story and the very real characters whose emotions are so well portrayed. It is a story about an horrific secret that nearly destroys Libby Trent and her family.
Libby has a very strong sense of justice. With her things are either black or white, there are no grey areas. It is the way she has been brought up by her father with whom she and her husband and children enjoy a loving relationship. When Simon Baum of the Department of Justice’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section knocks on her door and tells her he is about to arrest her ninety-six year old father for war crimes committed at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland from 1942 to 1943, she is determined to find evidence that will prove him wrong.
The auther moves effortlessly between the present day and the war years, showing us what acrually happened to Hans Brenner and his sister Anni…….
I will not tell you any more as I do not want to spoil the read for you.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture.The opinions in this review are completely my own.

How would you feel to discover your father was a Nazi war criminal? Libby can’t believe her sweet, loving, ninety-six year-old dad could be a part of a death camp, until evidence suggests otherwise. The media hounds them, her two children act out, her husband is a rock but even that relationship is strained. What would you do?
An engrossing tale of being sucked into the Nazi’s reign of evil.

Incredible book, read it in one day - couldnt do anything else. The story grabs you from the start and doesn't let go. The author draws beautiful pictures with her words, the angst of an almost teenager daughter, the trials of a husband trying to protect his family while dealing with the fractures caused by a member of that family and the love between a father and a daughter. I loved the fact that the author highlighted that not all people who worked in the concentration camps were there out of choice. It is so easy for us in 2022 to say we wouldnt have worked there or we wouldnt have done that. When your family is at risk or your own life, what would you do? Im guessing almost anything to survive. This novel highlights that question without taking away from the suffering of the victims of the concentration camps. Excellent story and highly recommended.

Elizabeth (known as Libby) Trent is at work for her charity, sorting donated clothing with her friend Grace. She receives an urgent phone call from her very scared daughter Em. Two uniformed policemen and another man are asking if they can speak to Elizabeth Trent. One of them, the spokesman tells her that he has a warrant to arrest her father. Libby is shocked, devastated and full of disbelief. Her father has brought her up after her mother left them when she was a toddler. Her father was the gentlest, most loving and honest man. Libby asks them to step outside her house to ease her daughter’s anxiety as, with her older brother out cycling, she will sit quietly with her Granddad. It is now 11am and she tells the man she is speaking to she is only a ten minute drive away and will be there as soon as possible.
When she arrives home in Charlottesville Village in East Virginia, she asks to see the identity of the man who she has spoken to at her place of work. His name is Simon Baum and he tells her that he works for the Department of Justice’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. He is a Nazi hunter. He believes that her ninety-six- year-old father, who has resided with his family for a decade, is not Daniel Weiss, but is a man called Hans Brenner, an accountant from Stuttgart, who was posted to Sobibor extermination camp in East Poland between November1942 and October1943. Daniel Weiss was a German speaking Jew from Poznan, a goldsmith who was at the camp as a prisoner, and whose wife and daughter had been gassed, leaving him with his young son Leo. It is Leo who has initiated the Special Prosecution Section investigations, telling them that he had witnessed Hans Brenner shoot his father dead at the gates of the camp during a prisoner revolt in October 1943.
Libby is beyond stunned. She asks Simon what proof he has collected so far. He shows her a photograph of her charity gala when the family, including her father, were all together. It is definitely him, but could his name be Hans Brenner? She knows that he entered the USA as a displaced person as Daniel Weiss over seventy years ago. Her head is spinning. Then Simon confesses that he is waiting for the arrest warrant to be authenticated and asks Libby if she has any other photos of her father during the second world war: a letter, a photograph or maybe an old trophy. She tells him the truth, there is nothing like that in the house. So he asks her to try to find evidence. It may even prove he is innocent. Later on she discusses what to do with Tim, her husband, but feels unable to challenge her father. He knows something is wrong though and their usual closeness is ruined. What a dilemma for Libby but she will do as Simon Baum has asked because she believes in doing the right thing. The information I have included in my review contains no spoilers and all of this information is in the first three chapters.
I loved this story so much. It was poignant, heartbreaking and yet life-affirming. The story is mainly based on factual information, but with a few fictional characters and activities. I thought the storytelling was outstanding and the storyboard brimmed with action, pain, worry, darkness and excitement. The meticulous research made the story very strong, believable and authentic. It is difficult to describe such a variety of characters, but there are the selfless, admirable and honest characters against the evil, atrocious, vile, wicked Nazis. I loved the themes explored: family, principles, love, secrecy and then darkness, war crimes, anger and death. The story had two strong voices, written as different threads: Libby’s story and her father’s. When the threads are merged the story became a whole and the finale was on a different level: brilliant, heart-warming and complete. It was a really excellent read and I urge you to read it.
I received this book through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Bookouture in return for an honest review. Thank you for my copy. These are my own honest thoughts. I am a massive fan of Kate and have found that she never disappoints me with her intelligent and very interesting writing. I think this one is her very best: thought provoking, gut wrenching and full of darkness follower by joy and relief.

“When We Were Innocent” is a historical fiction book by Kate Hewitt. This book asks an interesting question - what would you do and how would you feel if a parent was a Nazi War Criminal? I felt that the question was an extremely interesting one - especially since, in today’s news, stories about elderly people are being tried for their war crimes. This book is told in dual-timelines - one by Hans (past) and one by Kate (present). I felt for Kate and her family and actually admired the emotional strength that Kate’s father showed in this book. I had some issues with the book in the beginning - let’s be honest, US government or police on my doorstep - don’t let them into the house and ask to see paperwork (and call a lawyer pronto!). The ending, unfortunately, I saw coming but it didn’t diminish my up to that point enjoyment of the book. Ms. Hewitt did a great job with pulling emotions and showing, thought the dual timelines, what was going on.

Read this book in 24 hrs just could not put it down once I started. Emotional charged story that had me reaching for the tissues in every chapter, First Kate Hewitt novel and wouldn't be my last, Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy. Highly recommended.

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What would you do if you found out that the man who is your father was a Nazi War Criminal? Would you stand by him or let him face his actions alone? That is the dilemma faced by his daughter in this thrilling, not to be put down story. Everything that she thought that she knew about her dad is revealed and the consequences on both of them are profound. An excellent read and one that I will highly recommend