His name was Jan
His name was Jan is a book for young people by the German writer Irina Korschunow . The action takes place at the end of the Second World War . It's about the forbidden love between a German girl named Regine and the Polish forced laborer Jan. The book was first published in 1979 by Benziger Verlag .
construction
The book is written in the first person and describes the events in retrospect from Regine's point of view. Regine reports from the gable chamber about the events with Jan, the war and the current events in the yard.
Summary of the story
It is September 12, 1944 , Regine's 17th birthday, at night immediately after an air raid alarm in the northern German town of Steinbergen. A wounded Pole lies outside while his colleague looks for help. When he sees Regine with her “first aid kit”, he speaks to her and asks her for help. Although Regine is a staunch National Socialist , she gives the Pole first aid .
The next morning when she went to the gardener Steffens to get vegetables, she saw the friend of the wounded Pole again. His name is Jan. Regine says it's her birthday. Then Mr. Steffens invites them both for a schnapps. Regine and Jan get to know each other better and fall in love. They meet regularly at night in Mr. Steffen's shed. There they talk about a lot of things, especially the war. Through contact with Jan, Regine gradually loses her National Socialist convictions.
One night Jan and Regine are arrested by the Gestapo . Jan is taken away immediately, it remains open where to go. Regine is cut off her hair and insulted as a "Polish whore" before she is put in prison. When the air raid alarm went off again at night, the guard released Regine, as the prison had already been hit. She escapes to Henninghof, where she helped with the harvest in the summer. The farmer's wife hides them in the gable chamber.
The book ends with a quote from Jan, which Regine remembers in the gable chamber. Jan's further fate is not reported.
reception
The novel He was called Jan was awarded the Zurich children's book prize La vache qui lit in 1979 . In 1980 he was on the shortlist of the German Youth Literature Prize . The Dutch translation, entitled Hij heette Jan , was awarded the Zilveren Griffel in 1985. The paperback edition was published by dtv junior in 24 editions. John Y. Hammer realized the novel as a play for three people.
literature
- Irina Korshunov, His name was Jan . Benziger Verlag, Cologne / Zurich 1979. ISBN 3-545-32176-2 .
Web links
- His name was Jan as a reading recommendation for school in the Bavarian Reading Forum .
- Lesson suggestion from dtv Verlag for the 9./10. Class (pdf).
Individual evidence
- ↑ His name was Jan ( Memento from December 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at Theaterstückverlag.