Sonny Boy

Protagonist Waldemar Nods, a Surinamese student who moves to the Netherlands and faces discrimination for his dark skin. He enters a relationship with Rika van der Lans and becomes the father of Waldy, the boy they nickname Sonny Boy. His wartime journey includes deportation to Neuengamme and involvement in the Cap Arcona disaster, where he dies.

Rika is a mother who leaves her deeply religious husband Willem after discovering his infidelity. She raises four children with Waldemar and becomes a central figure in sheltering others during the war. Her choices reflect maternal courage and resilience in the face of danger.

Rika's deeply religious husband who initially resists divorce and fights to keep the family together. He later enforces custody and demands that Bertha and Henk live with him, illustrating the complexities of loyalty, religion, and power within a fractured family.

Bertha is one of the four children of Rika and Waldemar. She is caught in the upheaval of wartime custody and displacement, representing the younger generation affected by adults' decisions and the dangers of the era.

One of the four children, Wim is a young boy who runs away to his father during the early tensions and grows up amid the war's disruptions and dangers within the family.

The older Wim represents the same family lineage in later years, continuing to be part of the wartime story as adolescence matures into adulthood within a world at war.

Jan is another one of the children, a 20-year-old who navigates the dangers and shifts in family dynamics during the occupation and upheaval.

A resistance fighter who interacts with Rika through the war, acting as a facilitator of help and shelter for those in danger and linking the family to the broader resistance movement.

An older Jewish man who rents the family a room and later aids them, providing support that enables the guesthouse to operate. He embodies the moral bravery found among those who helped others during the occupation.

Waldemar and Rika's son, Sonny Boy, whose life circumstances are shaped by his parents' decisions and the wartime events around them. He is placed with relatives and later with a foster family as the danger escalates.