Out of the Hitler Time

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a semi-autobiographical story of a young Jewish girl and her family escaping the Nazis and the journey they experience. The family escaped through Switzerland, spent some time in Paris, before finally arriving in England in 1936.

It is based upon the early life of the author whose Jewish father, noted drama critic, journalist and screenwriter Alfred Kerr, was wanted by the Nazis. Kerr's family also fled their home in Berlin via Switzerland to escape to Paris and then England. She came to write the book when her own son was eight; after seeing The Sound of Music he remarked, "now we know what it was like when Mummy was a little girl". Kerr wanted him to know what it was really like and so wrote When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. The book gives a distinctive child's perspective on the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany and the experience of being a refugee, reflecting Kerr's positive feelings about her own experience:

The story starts in Berlin, in March 1933, when nine-year-old Anna, the main character in the trilogy, finds out one morning that her father is missing. She and her brother, Max, discover that Papa thinks that Adolf Hitler might win the elections, and has fled to Prague. Because the family is of Jewish heritage, and Papa is also a well-known Jewish author, this is important. If Hitler wins the elections, Mama, Max and Anna will join Papa in Switzerland. If Hitler loses, then Papa will come back home to Berlin. However the parents decide not to wait until after the elections and Mama and the children rushed into Switzerland in alarming secrecy. It is at this time that Anna has to choose which toy she wishes to take with her. She opts to take her new woolly dog, and leave behind her pink rabbit toy, believing she will return to Berlin after a short time. It is from this that the title is derived as she considers that Hitler and the Nazis have "stolen" her toy. In Switzerland, they settle in a gasthof on the shore of Lake Zurich, and the family stay there for six months. Soon, however, Papa thinks that they should move to Paris, and goes there to find out about accommodation. He comes back and wants Mama to come back with him as a prospective buyer. So Max and Anna are left on their own for a little while.

The Nazis find out about Papa as he travels, and a price of one thousand marks is put on his head. This really scares Anna and she is afraid that it means that Papa will be put in a room with one thousand coins being dropped onto his head, suffocating him. She goes on believing this until Max tells her what it really means. When Papa soon comes back to collect them (Mama stays in Paris to settle into the apartment they have rented), a porter directed them to the wrong train, one that will send them back to Germany, where Papa would have been imprisoned by the Nazis. Fortunately, though, Anna notices the destination label just in time, and they manage to get their luggage back and onto the correct train to Paris. There, Max attends a boys' school, and it takes a long time but Mama finally finds an elementary school for Anna. Anna finds French hard for a little while, but one day it clicks and she finds herself able to speak it fluently. In 1936, after two years in Paris, the family decides to move again, this time to London, as Papa thinks the BBC might buy a biographical film script on Napoleon, inspired by a talk he had with the children. The story ends as Mama, Papa, Max and Anna get off the train in England, to be greeted by Mama's cousin, Otto.

Bombs On Aunt Dainty

Bombs On Aunt Dainty, also known as The Other Way Round, is about Kerr's life in London during World War II. The book was published in 1975.

A Small Person Far Away

A Small Person Far Away is the third part in the trilogy, published in 1978. The book is set in 1956, following the war. Anna lives in Kensington with her husband Richard, a scriptwriter for the BBC, but must return to Berlin where her mother lives.

Awards and legacy

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit won the 1974 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. It is often used in German and British schools as an introduction to the period in history and the experience of being a refugee. The book has been used as part of the Judith Kerr collection at the Seven Stories Centre for Children’s Books, in Newcastle. It is an American Library Association Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a Horn Book Fanfare Title.