When Hitler stole the pink rabbit

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When Hitler Pink Rabbit steel is a novel by Judith Kerr , which was published in English in 1971 (Original title: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit ). The German translation by Annemarie Böll appeared in 1973. The autobiographical book for children and young people has long been regarded as a standard work for school lessons as an introduction to the topic of the beginnings of the Third Reich and the problem of refugees . In 1974 the novel was awarded the German Youth Literature Prize as an “outstanding children's book”. Up to 2013, 1.3 million copies of the book had been sold in Germany.

The novel is the prelude to a trilogy in the course of which Anna, from whose perspective the story is told, grows into a grown woman. The trilogy begins in 1933 and ends in the 1950s. The titles of the sequels are: Waiting for Peace to Come and A Kind of Family Reunion .

Summary

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (2002 edition, excluding JK's copyrighted title drawing)

From Berlin to Zurich

The novel begins in the period before the Reichstag elections in March 1933 . Anna is nine years old and lives with her Jewish family in Berlin . Anna's father is a well-known writer who also publishes articles against Hitler and the NSDAP in newspapers and magazines. Concerned that Hitler would come to power and the resulting arrest, he fled to Prague , warned by a police officer . In contrast, Uncle Julius, a family friend, remains in Berlin.

A few days later, on the weekend of the election, Anna, her mother and her twelve-year-old brother Max travel to Switzerland , where they meet Anna's father in Zurich . After Hitler's election victory and the confiscation of their property - including Anna's pink plush rabbit, which she left behind in Berlin - they were forced to stay in Switzerland. You will first stay in one of the best hotels in Zurich; When money is running out, they move to an inn with the Zwirn family, who have three children: Franz, Trudi and Vreneli. Here Anna and Max first felt the anti-Semitic attitude of their compatriots: The children of a vacationing family from Munich were forbidden to play or talk to them, whereupon the host's children had to take sides.

As a result of the book burning , which also affects her father's books, and due to the fact that the Swiss newspapers are primarily interested in their neutrality, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Anna's father to publish his articles and earn money with them. The fact that the Nazis put a price on the apprehension of Anna's father doesn't make the family's life any easier. Due to financial difficulties, the family moves on to Paris , where the father sees better opportunities for himself and the family.

On to Paris and London

Once in France , the family has to face the problems of a refugee family: language problems, integration problems and, here too, the problem of limited money. Articles by the father in the Paris newspaper only make for a meager income. The family in France is not confronted with anti-Semitism; on the other hand, the financial worries are growing, especially since the host country is beset by an economic crisis. Freedom is more important to the father than the financial situation - in Paris he learns that his old friend Julius has committed suicide in Berlin after numerous harassments - and the only thing that counts for Anna is that the family is not separated.

However, the mother, who is mainly burdened by economic worries, urges a move to England. After a humiliating scene in which the concierge speaks contemptuously about the family who cannot pay for their furnished rental apartment on time, she demands a decision. To Anna's horror, the parents decide to move their children to live with their grandparents, who have also emigrated, in the south of France. But before that decision can be put into practice, news arrives that an English company is planning to buy one of his father's film manuscripts and is paying him £ 1,000 for it . The whole family can then go to London together. Arrived in London, cousin Otto greets Anna and the other family members at Victoria Station .

Film adaptations

When Hitler stole the pink rabbit, it was filmed in 1978 by WDR for ARD under the direction of Ilse Hofmann - partly at original locations. It was first broadcast on December 25, 1978. Martin Benrath and Elisabeth Trissenaar played the parents, Ariane Jeßulat and Alexander Rosenberg played the children Anna and Max, and Miriam Spoerri played another role.

In 2019 a new production produced by Sommerhaus Filmproduktion GmbH was released in the cinemas. Directed by Caroline Link , who also wrote the script with Anna Brüggemann . Riva Krymalowski took on the role of Anna .

Biographical references

Judith Kerr has adopted her own family constellation very precisely; her brother Michael became Max, behind the famous father hides Alfred Kerr , and the mother, who still plays music in Berlin and is unaffected by household and financial worries, has a clear resemblance to her archetype Julia Weismann . The marginal figures are the maternal grandmother and a great-aunt Sarah, who lives as a widow in Paris. All that is said about the grandfather is that, unlike the father of the family, he is not famous and was therefore able to emigrate with all his possessions unhindered. The reality may have looked different for Robert Weismann . Alexander Korda is behind the Hungarian director, who is promoting the purchase of the screenplay about Napoleon's mother in England . The archetype of Uncle Julius is the Oscar Wilde translator Max Meyerfeld .

expenditure

literature

  • Silke Nickel: Literature card index: "When Hitler stole the pink rabbit". To the youth book by Judith Kerr . Verlag an der Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr 2000, ISBN 3-86072-494-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Judith Kerr: An awakened childhood. Argon 1990, ISBN 3-87024-175-6 , p. 32 f.