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Translated from the German by Edite Kroll. This book was first published in German in 1962. This English translation was first published in 1972.
This book is about the children of the Hitler youth organisations. It is partly autobiographical. Hans Peter Richter (who is now a social psychologist) grew up in Cologne and actually witnessed many of the events in the book. At the front of the book he says,
I am reporting how I lived through that time and what I saw - no more. I was there. I was not merely an eyewitness. I believed - and I will never believe again.
During the Hitler years it was compulsory for children in Germany to be members of the various Nazi youth organisations. For boys between the ages of 7 and 10 there was the Pimpf. For boys between 10 and 14 there was the Jungvolk and from 14-18 the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth). Boys were made to join these organisations where they were force fed the poisonous ideas of Hitler and the Nazis.
I was There is told in the first person. It tells of the progress of the narrator and his two friends, Heinz and Gunther, through the youth organisations. Hans Peter Richter describes what happened but does not comment. It is left to the reader to make an interpretation.
Little boys are fascinated by the Jungvolk and the Hitlerjugend but when they become actual members of the Jungvolk it is often a different story.
For a start it is often boring. They often have to listen - sometimes standing to attention - to long speeches or tirades from their leaders. Then it is frequently exhausting. They may have to stand for hours waiting to see Hitler or go on long hikes carrying heavy packs. Their leaders can be very harsh. When Gunther whispers while his unit is being addressed he is punished by being made to do exercises which involve him throwing himself down in puddles and sliding through them. Later when the three boys go up into the Hitlerjugend they have to listen to a long introductory harangue which ends with the words, "I demand obedience, obedience, unconditional obedience."
As they walk home the narrator (Hans?) says, "I don't like it in the Hitler Youth" and Gunther promptly says, "I don't either." But Heinz just says, "We will have to get used to it."
Interspersed with this description of the youth organisations are some more sinister accounts of attacks on the Jews and the pogrom of the "night of broken crystal."
The narrator tends to keep in the background but Heinz and Gunther are drawn in some detail. Gunther's father is a communist and Gunther is only in the Hitler Youth because he has to be. Heinz, on the other hand, is doing well. He is made the leader of a unit. But what many people may find surprising is that he is shown as responsible, sympathetic and caring. When the young Hans goes on a march for which he is far too small Heinz walks beside him and eventually pulls him aside and gives him the money for his tram fare home. Later when they have to spend a weekend collecting one of the boys, Otto, says he cannot do it because he has to visit his sick grandmother. This excuse is not accepted but later Heinz takes his can and collects for him.
The War comes and Heinz joins up but Hans and Gunther are still too young. They are sent to the country to help with the harvest. Later they help to look after evacuee children before they too join up.
As Hans Peter Richter just describes these events readers have to do all their own thinking. And this book is certainly makes one think. Grown up Germans accepted Hitler because he offered them the chance of a job and an escape from poverty. But the children of Germany had no choice. At one point Gunther tells Heinz that his father says that the Nazis are driving Germany to war and disaster.
Heinz can only reply, "But what can I do?"
What indeed?
This account of Germany under the Nazis told from within is deeply thought-provoking and disturbing.
At the end there are detailed and useful notes and a chronology. These notes almost turn the book into a miniature reference book.
12+
Translated from German by Edite Kroll.
This book was first published in German in 1961. The first English translation appeared in 1970. This book won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award. This is an award given by the American Library association to an American publisher for the most outstanding book originally published in a foreign language.
The Schneiders live in a block of apartments. In 1925 their son Friedrich is born. Another family in the same block have a son born around the same time. The two boys grow up and become friends. This story is told in the first person by Friedrich's friend.
At the beginning of the book the Schneiders are comfortably off. Mr Schneider is an official in the Post Office while the other boy's father is unemployed. But gradually things begin to change.
The Schneiders are Jewish. Hitler comes to power and the destruction of the Jews begins. Gradually. At first verbal abuse and then a one day boycott of Jewish shops. All Jewish civil servants are dismissed and Mr Schneider loses his job. Mrs Schneider loses her cleaning lady because she is no longer allowed to work for a Jewish family. And then Friedrich has to leave his school and go to a special school for Jews.
Then the true horror of the Nazi's plans are revealled and we see the dreadful horror of what is really facing the Jews. Friedrich's mother is killed in a pogrom and Mr Schneider is arrested for hiding a rabbi.
For a time Friedrich manages to survive as best he can and he stills sees his boyhood friend who once smuggles Friedrich into a cinema. If Friedrich were to be caught he could be sent to a concentration camp.
Finally there is an air raid. Friedrich is not allowed into the air raid shelter.
Alongside the story of the Schneiders we also see the progress of the other family. The father joins the National Socialist Party and is rewarded with a job. But he is a Nazi because of what the party can offer him, not from conviction. He and his family feel sorry for the Schneiders and try to help them a little.
Clearly and simply written this book shows the complete destruction of one Jewish family, and in so doing, brings home to the reader the tragedy and horror of the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
There is a useful list and chronology of Hitler's anti Jewish laws and regulations at the back.
This is a book to read to make sure that we never forget the dreadful Hitler years. A book to read
Lest we forget.
12+
This book is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old who does not fully understand what is happening around him.
Bruno lives in a very comfortable house in Berlin. One day an important man known as the Fury (Bruno is told that he is not pronouncing that properly but that is the nearest he can get to it) comes one evening and afterwards Bruno’s father is known as the Commandant. Shortly afterwards they all go to live in a smaller house at a place known as Out With. (Bruno is told that he is not pronouncing that properly either). Bruno does not like the new house. It is cold and uncomfortable and there are always soldiers coming and going. From his bedroom window Bruno can see a high fence. On the other side are men and boys all wearing a kind of uniform like striped pyjamas. Bruno is bored. He has always liked exploring and he slips away and walks alongside the fence –– although he has been strictly forbidden to do this. He finds a boy sitting on the other side of the fence, talks to him and makes friends with him. This is the first of many meetings. Bruno wants to see what is on the other side of the fence. He is small for his age and the fence is loose at the foot. The other boy brings some striped clothing for Bruno who slips under the fence. What happens to him when he goes exploring among the people in striped pyjamas?
Very early on many readers will at once know what this book is really about. The title gives a strong clue for a start. The Fury is obviously the Fuhrer –– why Bruno’s father even teaches him to say ‘Heil Hitler’ although Bruno does not know what that means. Equally obviously Out With is Auswitz and Bruno’s father is the camp commandant.
There is nothing explicit and this actually reinforces the horror of the Holocaust. This reader knows more than Bruno and can fill in the missing details with his or her imagination.
But to understand this book a reader must have a good background knowledge of Auswitz otherwise the whole point of the book would be missed? Can such background knowledge really be taken for granted?
An unusual book about the Holocaust. The understatement makes for a powerful atmosphere.
12 to adult
Poland 1942. Nine-year-old Felix is living in an orphanage high up in the Polish mountains. He was placed there by his parents who assured him that they would come back for him when times are easier for Jewish booksellers. But that was three years ago.
Felix is imaginative and is always making up stories. When something strange or alarming happens he can always find a satisfactory reason.
One day men in suits and armbands come to the orphanage. They gather together books from the library. Felix decides that they must be librarians. Only the other day Mother Minka had told the library monitors that the library was a mess and should be tidied up. She must have got professional librarians to do it. The men with armbands started to burn the books. Surely Mother Minka never meant them to do that?
Then a new boy at the orphanage tells Felix that Mother Minka made him swear never to tell the other boys the bad things the Nazis are doing. But Felix knows what the Nazis are doing. They are burning books. He decides to run away and warn his parents to hide the books.
He runs away and comes to a house which is deserted. He hears gunshots in the distance and guesses that the people are out shooting rabbits. He takes some clothes and helps himself to some food and leaves a note for the people of the house. Then he continues his journey and reaches his old home only to find that different people are living in it. And a lot of his old neighbours are no longer there either.
Felix starts to walk towards the city. He comes across a burning house and finds a man and woman lying dead from gunshot wounds in front of it. But a six-year-old girl is still alive. He tries to help her and takes her with him. They are caught by the Nazis and are herded, with a large number of other Jews, towards the city. And the truth finally dawns on Felix. Perhaps it is not just the Jews’ books the Nazis hate. Perhaps it is the Jews themselves.
Felix and the little girl Zelda end up in the Warsaw ghetto. They hide out in a cellar with five other children and a man who is looking after them. And Felix learns the truth about the Nazis at last. He has to face reality and stop fantasizing. But his stories still have a purpose. They help to keep up the spirits of the other children.
The story is told in the first person and so we know right from the beginning that Felix survives. And so he does. The book ends with him jumping off a train bound for one of the death camps. So he survives. But for how long?
This book is fiction but it is based on stories of Holocaust survivors. And the character of Barney is loosely based on that of Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jewish doctor who helped run an orphanage. When the children were finally shipped to a death camp the doctor was offered his freedom by the Nazis but he refused it and stayed with the children.
A child’s eye view of the Nazis and the holocaust.
12+
This is a collected edition of the three books of a trilogy - When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, The Other Way Round and A Small Person Far Away. These books tell the story of the members of a Jewish family which fled from Germany in 1933 and their lives as refugees. The stories are based on the actual experiences of the author and are illustrated by her. The first book could be read by children of ten upwards, but the second is definitely teenage and the third adult.
This book was first published in 1971. It is illustrated by the author.
Berlin, 1933. Anna's father has flu and has to stay in bed. Then one morning she finds that his bedroom is empty and his bed made. So her mother has some difficult explaining to do to nine year old Anna and her eleven year old brother Max.
It is ten days before the elections and it is commonly believed that Hitler is going to win. Anna's father is a writer and a harsh critic of the Nazis. He is also Jewish. He received a phone call from a policeman who has read his books, warning him that if the Nazis win the elections they may take away his passport. Anna's Papa at once caught the night train to Prague. If the Nazis lose the election Papa will come home. If the Nazis win then Mama and the children will join him in Switzerland.
Then comes the difficult part -- and the important part. Mama makes the children promise not to tell anyone that Papa has left Germany. If anyone asks about him they are to say he is still in bed with the flu.
Then they get word from Papa. He now wants them to meet him in Zurich on Sunday - the day of the elections. He is worried that the Nazis might take away their passports too and then they would not be able to leave Germany. He does not want them to wait until after the elections.
They pack a few things and get aboard a train. There is a moment of drama at the border and then they are safely in Switzerland. They meet Papa as planned in Zurich.
For the first few weeks in Switzerland Anna is very ill. She has flu and there are complications. When she recovers Max tells her that they just got out of Germany in time. The Nazis came for their passports the morning after the elections. (It is not until she is much older that Anna also learns that Papa's name was on a Nazi list of people to be executed if they got into power).
Max also tells her that the Nazis have confiscated all their property and explains to her what that means. Anna at once begins to think of Pink Rabbit. When they were packing Mama told them they could not take much and Anna had to chose between a new toy dog and an old, faithful pink rabbit. Anna chose the dog and Pink Rabbit was left behind. Now she regrets her decision. Pink Rabbit had embroidered black eyes because the original glass ones had fallen out. He had an endearing habit of collapsing on his paws. It had been a dreadful mistake to leave him. Anna imagines Hitler snuggling up to Pink Rabbit.
Now begins their life as a refugee family. In Berlin they were comfortably off but now they are very poor. Papa is finding it very difficult to earn his living as a writer. This is because the Swiss are very conscious of being neutral and they think that to publish articles by such a prominent opponent of the Nazis would be to compromise their neutrality. But the little family make the best of it. Anna and Max attend local schools, make friends and settle down.
Then Papa goes to Paris and has talks with several newspaper editors. He is sure he will do better there and so the family is uprooted again. This time it is more difficult for Anna as she does not speak French. But she goes to school and struggles on and she actually gains her school certificate.
Now there is the Depression and Papa is finding it increasingly difficult to find work. He decides to try England and so for the third and last time the family is again on the move. When they arrive in London they are met by Cousin Otto and Anna overhears him say,
"It must be quite difficult to spend one's childhood moving from country to country."
Anna is pleased to hear that because she had once read a book about famous people. They all seemed to have had difficult childhoods. Despite everything Anna does not consider her life as a refugee difficult. As long as she is with Mama, Papa and Max she is all right. So she will never become famous. But now hearing Cousin Otto she feels that there might be some hope after all.
This is a moving account of one family's flight from Nazi Germany and their struggle against poverty and life in strange lands.
This book is told simply from Anna's viewpoint and it could be read by children of ten. But it is the kind of book which can be read on different levels and with their experience and insight adults could get a lot from it too.
This edition comes with a postscript by the author. All the important things in the book are true but she has filled in the blanks with invented details. She has a moving last paragraph where she points out that it was nearly too late. If they had tried to leave Germany a day later she would have died in the concentration camps and she ends with the words,
"I can never forget how lucky I've been."
Judith Kerr is well known as the author and illustrator of picture books, of which the Mog stories are among the best known.
This book was first published in 1975. It is the second book in the trilogy. Anna is now a teenager in London. The family is still living in poverty as Papa does not understand English and cannot get writing work. But Mama gets a job. Mama and Papa live in a cheap hotel, Anna stays with friends and Max has won a scholarship to Oxford. Then Anna gets a job with a charity.
There is the Blitz. Anna's friends return to America and Anna goes to live with her parents again. They are bombed and have to move again. Then, despite being a refugee and anti-nazi, Max is arrested and interned because he is German born. Mama struggles to have him released.
Anna has her job during the day but she also attends evening classes - in art. Anna works hard at her drawing and painting and she is eventually awarded a scholarship to an art college. The War does not stop Anna having the usual teenage feelings and emotions and, for a time, she is attracted to her art teacher.
Max and Anna have both been able to adapt. Anna has her drawing and Max is studying to become a lawyer but Max worries about his parents. What will they do with their lives after the War? A question which is answered sadly in the third volume of the trilogy.
Max reminds Anna that she used to say that as long as she was with Mama and Papa she did not feel like a refugee. Now it is the other way round. Max thinks that the only time their parents don't feel like refugees is when they are with Max or Anna.
Teenage to adult
The last book in the trilogy. It was first published in 1978.
Anna is now married and living with her husband in London. Papa is dead and Mama has remarried and is living in Berlin. Anna suddenly gets a telegram saying that her mother is very ill in hospital. Anna flies out to Germany and finds that her mother - who had always been so strong during the years of poverty and hardship - has attempted suicide.
Adult
Although this book reads like a novel it is not fiction. It is autobiographical but it is such a wonderful book that I felt that I had to include it. It was first published in 1968.
Esther Rudomin is the daughter of wealthy Jewish parents. She lives in Vilna in a big house with a large garden. The house is divided into apartments in which her aunts, uncles and cousins live. Esther is a very happy little girl. As she says, "I loved school and I loved the order of my life." But things are soon to change.
In 1940 the Russians, who were allies of the Germans from 1939 until July 1941, occupied Poland. The communist authorities confiscate the family business and property but do not evict them from the house or garden. Then in 1941, when Esther is ten years old, soldiers come to the house and tell Esther and her parents that they are under arrest. One of the soldiers reads from a long piece of paper.
"... you are capitalists and therefore enemies of the people... you are to be sent to another part of our great and mighty country..."
They are given ten minutes to pack a few things and then put on a truck, taken to the railway station and finally put aboard cattle trucks. Esther's grandmother is also in their truck. Esther looks at her travelling companions to see if she can discover who these villainous capitalists are but all she sees are peasants. Polish peasants with not a rich capitalist among them. Esther later finds out that more than a million Poles were deported as "class enemies."
After a long journey they finally arrive at a small village on the steppes of Siberia. They are assigned work. Mother works in the gysum mine, Father is a trucker and Esther works in the fields weeding potatoes.
This state of affairs lasts only a few weeks. Germany invades Russia. All the workers are gathered together and told that a pact has been made between the Soviet Union and Poland and that the government of the Soviet Union has granted an amnesty to "all Polish citizens now detained in Soviet territory either as prisoners of war or on other sufficient grounds..."
(The amnesty was given at the joint request of the Polish government in exile in London and the government of Great Britain, Russia's ally now in the war against the Germans).
The Poles are told that they can move to the village where they will be assigned jobs with a stipend - only a few rubles but nevertheless something.
So between the years of ten and sixteen Esther lives as a deportee in a little village on the Siberian steppe. It is a life of hardship and deprivation. There is never enough food and in the harsh Siberian winter there is the additional problem of finding the necessary fuel. Accommodation is cramped and the family often has to share a tiny hut with another family.
But despite everything this is a surprisingly happy book. Esther is a girl of great resilience and her spirit shines through on every page. She goes to school and learns Russian. Once again Esther loves school - and the standard of education she receives is exceptionally high. When Esther is taken to school she is told that she will be in the fifth grade and that she will have the choice of English, French or German. In school the children have to sit with their hats and coats on but they do have a choice of three foreign languages. Later strings are pulled and Esther goes to a school for the children of the directors of the factory. In this school Esther is to meet some truly great teachers. Almost all of them had taught in the universities of European Russia and had been forced to flee the German armies. Esther has an hour's walk to school each way but when she gets there the school is actually warm.
Even more, the village also has a very good library. Esther studies hard and even enters a declamation contest.
Esther's attempts to gain an education should make us all feel very humble as we are surrounded by educational opportunities - and we do not appreciate them.
But Esther is also concerned with more mundane matters. She boils onions to make yellow dye for curtains. She knits to earn money. There is a dance and she has to find something to wear. And, like any other teenage girl, she is attracted to a boy.
Right from the early days, Esther also finds much to appreciate on the steppe. While still working in the mine, she is allowed to walk into the village with her grandmother to go to the market. They set off and Esther writes,
"It was shortly after six o'clock, the air was still cool and fresh, a hawk was soaring overhead, and, feeling oddly disloyal, I felt that the steppe was just a tiny bit beautiful that morning."
And then later,
"It was at this moment that I fell in love with space, endless space. And since Siberia was space, I had to include it - just a little and with great guilt-in this love."
And finally in 1945, just before she is about to return to Poland,
"I had come to love the steppe, the huge space and the solitude. Living in the crowed little huts, the steppe had become the place where a person could think her thoughts, sort out her feelings and do her dreaming."
Esther is now afraid of going back to a city but she does and finds that nearly all the members of her family who were left in Poland later perished in the Holocaust.
This is a wonderful book about a girl of spirit and courage growing up in conditions of great hardship.
10 to adult
The year is 1936. Abused and beaten up by thugs the Jews keep to the safety of their own streets. I do not use the word "ghetto" because we associate ghettoes with Germany and eastern Europe and even America but not with England and this book is set in England. In the east end of London to be more precise.
The story concentrates on a facet of British history which we prefer to forget:- Oswald Mosley and the rise of the Blackshirts.
Across the great divide two boys become friends - English Jimmy and Jewish Benny. Jimmy's widowed mother is friendly with Eddie Searle, one of Mosley's Blackshirts. Almost as bad, Searle is also a rent collector. This means that Jimmy is alienated from his old friends as they say Jimmy's mother is just trying to get her rent lowered. So Jimmy badly needs a new friend.
Against all the odds the two boys remain friends. They go to the park together and have their own secret meeting place in a deserted warehouse. Jimmy does not understand about the fascists but Benny explains everything to him. The story works up to a powerful climax when Mosley tries to march through the east end and the Jews organise themselves to stop him. "If we don't stop him now we could have another Hitler on our hands." Jimmy and Benny are told that it is not a matter for children but they sneak out on the streets. There is an extra piece of drama when they nearly end up under the hooves of a police horse.
The dockers and the ordinary people of the east end join the Jews against Mosley who is forced to abandon his march. The fascists are defeated. Jimmy's mother discovers the truth about Searle. She becomes friendly with Benny's mother and Jimmy and Benny remain friends.
The predominant anti racialist theme is worked out against the background of 1930's London -- tenements, broken linololeum, bed bugs and children playing in the streets.
This is a gripping story with a powerful message. We like to think that Hitler was something evil and unique. Evil he certainly was, unique unfortunately not. We must always be vigilant to stamp on the snake in our midst.
Extremely thought provoking.
12+
This is the first book in a trilogy about
some children of the first Kindertransport. This was a scheme
organised by the British government by which Jewish children were
allowed to leave Germany and go to Britain where foster homes
were found for them. Between 1938 and 1939 ten thousand children
were rescued.
It is October 1938. Eleven-year-old Marianne lives in Berlin with
her mother. She does not know where her father is. (She later
finds out that he is hiding from the Nazis and is constantly on
the move).
Life is difficult for Marianne. Being Jewish she is not allowed
to attend a German school. She has to accept abuse from other
children without retaliating. She has to be constantly on guard
and watch what she says in case she is overheard and reported
to the authorities. She has to stand by with her mother and watch
the Gestapo smash up their flat.
Marianne is afraid to leave the flat but she forces herself to
go for a walk every day. Once she sees a small boy who has just
had his bicycle stolen. Except that the policeman agrees with
the thief that it is not really stealing as the small boy is Jewish.
Another time she hears of a woman who was killed when the Gestapo
came to take her son away.
But throughout all this there is a glimmer of hope. Marianne's
mother works in an orphanage and she tells her daughter of a new
scheme by which Jewish children are to be allowed to travel to
Britain. Then, shortly before the first Kindertransport is due
to leave, two of the children catch measles. Marianne is given
the chance to go in place of one of them.
She does not want to go but she is assured that if she is already
in Britain it will make it easier for her mother to get a visa
later and join her. So Marianne joins the first Kindertransport.
There is the pandemonium, tension and grief at the station as
hundreds of children say goodbye to the parents they may never
see again and then they are on their way to Holland and then to
England.
Just before the train leaves a woman asks Marianne to look after
a little seven-year-old girl. This turns out to be Sophie Mandel
who appears in a later book in the series. But this first book
ends with the children aboard the ship which is just leaving Holland.
What lies before Marianne when she reaches England?
The horrific conditions of life in Germany just before the Second
World War are vividly depicted but the tension is somewhat lessened
by the warm relationship between Marianne and her mother. And
Marianne learns that despite all the Nazi brainwashing some young
Germans still manage to hold on to their humanity. This lesson
is brought home to her when an enthusiastic young member of one
of the Hitler youth movements gives her a present before she leaves
with a note saying, We are not all the same.
A book with many valuable lessons for young people. About history,
yes. But also about the suffering and misery caused by racialism
and abuse -- anywhere and at any time.
10+
This is the second book in the trilogy about the children of the first Kindertransport.
After a short prologue it takes up where Goodbye Marianne leaves off with the children arriving in London. They are taken to a hall where they meet their adoptive parents. Marianne is taken by a Mrs Abercrombie-Jones who has been expecting one of the girls whose place Marianne has taken. She really wants an older girl who can help with the housework but, reluctantly, she agrees to take Marianne instead. She is very umsympathetic and however hard hard Marianne tries to fit in she always seems to do the wrong thing. But she tries to do her best. She works hard at school and wins a scholarship to a grammar school. She also makes a good friend Bridget.
Then war breaks out, the school is evacuated to Wales and Marianne finds herself in a very unfortunate billet. She is sent to stay with a couple who had a daughter a little younger than Marianne. The daughter, Elizabeth, died and the couple try to make Marianne take her place -- which is a very difficult emotional experience for her. To make matters worse Marianne finds that there is deeprooted prejudice against the Jews in Wales.
As well as trying to cope with life in Britain Marianne is also trying to find someone who will employ her mother because then she will be able to apply for a visa and come to Britain. While in London, Brisget types out advertisements on her father's typewriter for a place for a cook/dressmaker/domestic and the two girls take them round the houses in the neighbourhood.
This second book in the series shows just how hard life in Britain could be for a young refugee -- even one as resourceful and resilient as Marianne.
10+
This is the last book in the trilogy
about the children of the first Kindertransport.
Sophie Mandel is only seven when her mother sends her away from
Garmany with the first Kindertransport. On arriving in
England, Sophie is lucky. A friend of her mother takes care of
her and is kind to her. Sophie is very fond of her 'Aunt Em' as
she calls her.
The first part of the book alternates between Sophie's life as
a fourteen-year-old living in London at the very end of the War
with her previous life in Germany.
Then there is the end of the War in Europe and the consequent
celebrations. But the end of the War brings its own problems for
Sophie. What will happen to her? Will she be sent back to Germany?
She is settled and happy in England and she can no longer speak
German. Then she hears that her father has survived but her mother
had been killed. As she learns both these facts at once it comes
as quite a shock.
Will Sophie be able to stay in England or will she be sent back
to Germany to live with her father.
This book also has a link with the first book of the trilogy Goodbye
Marianne. When she puts her aboard the train Sophie's mother
asks Marianne to look after her. But the two girls are separated
once they arrive in Liverpool. Years later they meet again.
Hightlights the problems of refugees.
Young adult
This is from the Flashback series - a series of historical novels for children of seven to eleven.
The story starts dramatically on the night of November 9th, 1938. Two terrified children, Clara and Maxi are cowering with their mother as the Nazis rampage through their house smashing and destroying the family's possessions. The next day, Lotte, their mother, decides to send her children to safety. There is a committee which helps Jewish children to leave Germany and go to Britain. Lotte arranges for her children to go with the Kindertransport. She herself is going to stay behind in Germany to try and help their father who is in Dachau.
The day of departure arrives. There is a description of the station with hundreds of children all with labels round their necks. I found this part reminiscent of the descriptions of British children being evacuated at the beginning of the War - but of course this is rather different. Maxi is only five and at first he finds it all a great adventure but then he wants to go home and nine year old Clara has to comfort him. The train takes them to Holland where they embark on a ship for Harwich. Most of the children go to holiday camps where they will stay until a family chooses them but Clara and Maxi are to go to an old friend of their father's.
The Baird family live in a little village. They are kind to the children and their daughter Phyllis, who is the same age as Clara, makes friends with them. Clara and Maxi go to the village school and start to settle down, although even in England they find some hostility towards the Jews. The story ends at Christmas with the school nativity play. But Christmas time is also the time of Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights and before the nativity play starts Clara sings the Hannukah song.
Next day Clara hears that her father has been released from Dachau and has been able to obtain travel papers and will shortly be arriving in England with her mother.
Although fiction this book is founded on fact. A note at the back says that ten thousand children came to Britain with the Kindertransports and that nine thousand of them never saw their parents again. I had not heard of the Kindertransports before and I found it very interesting.
The story is told very simply for the intended age group.
Personally I found it very moving. The author obviously cares deeply about the plight of the innocent Jewish children and really conveys to the reader their terror in Germany and their problems of adjustment and homesickness in England.
This is a book which has very obviously been written from the heart. It is officially for children of seven to eleven but I personally would say that it is for anyone from seven to one hundred and seven.
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