In 2013, I saw a program about the well-guarded 20th train from the Nazi's Mechelen Transit Camp in Brussels to Auschwitz. It was stopped by three Belgian resistance members who helped seventeen Jewish prisoners escape. That program sent me on a quest to research and write a story about Train Z, the only one of 28 trains from the Mechelen Transit Camp to have Romani prisoners onboard. I also wanted to salute the Belgian resistance and the Roma in this book who fought for freedom during World War II.
