The Thousand Children by Anne L. Fox and Eva Abraham-Podietz

This is a book aimed at junior school children – probably best suited for year 6 – about children’s experiences of the Holocaust. Even for someone like me, who is gradually acquiring a deep and detailed understanding of many of the issues, this book presents the main point beautifully and illustrates them well by giving anecdotal accounts. I was a little amused to both Northampton and Coventry being referred to as “towns north of London.” Well, yes, they are, but they could be much better described. But this book is written for an American audience. There is a mild rebuke that the rest of the world just watched and didn’t react after the Kristallnacht. They could have a point. The United Kingdom rescued just 10,000 out of 500,000 Jewish children. Not all that many people could find the £50.00 – probably £3000+ today – to sponsor a Jewish child. I was pleased to read of yet another adult who refused to use the Hitler salute and merely responded “Good day to you,” when anyone said “Heil Hitler” to her. One account said that the Kinder did not need visas or passports. Other accounts say otherwise. And it was the fact that my mother-in-law, Renate Edler, already had an adult passport, that helped her to get out so easily. This needs some more investigation. There was a little more information about the chaperones who came over with the children in this book. This is a fascinating topic which I want to investigate further. These good people would being the children over but then had to return to Germany – or else the Germans threatened to stop the whole of the Kindertransport. The book asserts that most of these chaperones later lost their lives in the Holocaust. One young woman worked in a munitions factory and worried that she was making bombs that might kill her mother who still lived in Hamburg. That also resonates with my novel.

The Power of Names

As I continue with my “Hani” strand, more and more German words are creeping in. Today I’ve used Vati, Mutti, Frau Gödde, Herr Gödde, Spätzle (gosh that’s not just German – it’s Swabian) Frau Lehrs, Doctor Kühn and Hausfrau, as well as, of course, a host of first names. Some of the words, like Hausfrau and Spätzle don’t quite translate. I hope I’ve shown the meaning by the way I’ve included them in the text. I may have to provide a glossary, or that could be put on the web site. I’ll probably revisit the work of Caroline Lawrence to get some ideas about this. I love the way she has done that for the Roman Mysteries. I think in the 1940s, and certainly in Germany, there was greater formality about how you addressed people. Hani would never have addressed Frau Lehrs as Clara, though in the scene I’ve written today, now that Hani is sixteen and already working as a housekeeper, she thinks of her as Clara Lehrs. She thinks about her parents mainly as Mutti and Vati but occasionally as her father or her mother. I’m also using Frau and Herr Gödde. I was discussing a similar example with a colleague yesterday, where a point of view character thinking of her parents as Mr and Mrs X would have been wrong. Here, though, it seems to work. It’s possibly because the text is a little exotic and these two expressions remind the reader that the people involved are German. This may all change in the editing, of course.

More Work with Yad Vashem

This really is a most useful site. I’ve now looked through their archives. There is much what I call “real-time” witnessing – talking about events as they happened – diaries, letters, etc and of course photographs. There are lots of many fascinating books – I’ve added a fair few to my extra reading list. The education programme is also very good. This may come in very useful for some of my school visits later, though naturally by then I should have quite a lot of my own material. There is the opportunity also for some academic publishing though I fear that what I am dealing with in this project is more on the edge of the Holocaust. They also have several interesting research projects underway and some completed ones. I wonder where there is a similar platform for Potatoes in Spring.

I Came Alone by Bertha Leverton and Shmuel Lowensohn

This is a set of accounts of people who arrived in the UK via the Kindertransport or had some connection with it in some way. Much of my research has led me to the thousands of such accounts. Only a few are in the form of letters or diaries written at the time – most are told through the mist of memory and toned by present day considerations.

Nevertheless, they are all useful and they are most certainly interesting.

I found several instances of similarities with the story of my mother-in-law, Renate Edler.  There was even another Renate who had an Uncle Rudi!

Several of the Kinder, as she did, also ended up living in North Finchley. Several also came across form Nuremberg in January 1939 as she did. We aren’t sure whether she came over on an organised Kindertransport or whether it was some sort of private arrangement.

Most of the Kinder in this book are very Jewish, but there are a few examples of “Mischling” children.

There are a few touches of humour, too. One young German girl gets very confused about the difference between marmalade and jam – the German for jam is “Marmalade”.   

I hope I manage to get some humour into my text.

There are also some examples of parents of the Kinder getting jobs and settling in the UK – just as Kathe Edler did. I still have to verify the facts about all of this. I need another stroke of luck like I had yesterday with Clara Lehrs.  

          

Balancing Research Facts and Fiction

You have to do it right. You’ve got to make it all seem authentic, so you need to find out how things were at the time. The temptation can be, however, to try to squeeze every fact in. It’s also really quite difficult to decide whether that is what you are doing.

I’m still carrying on with the Hani thread, and Clara Lehrs is becoming feistier by the minute. I’m really getting to know this character well. That made confirming that she went to Treblinka yesterday all the more poignant.

In today’s writing alone I’ve had to consult:

the perpetual calendar

the timeline for 1939

my notes on food rationing

my notes on conscription for young German men during World War II.

I’ve also had to find a German food ration card.  

I hope I’ve also brought enough tension into the plot

It is so very hard to judge whether that balance of story and of setting is correct.

Still, I’m sharing some of this with a critique group tomorrow and possibly some more with another group nearer the end of the month.      

A Real Breakthrough – thanks to Yad Vashem

I have now found details of Clara Lehrs’ transportation to Theriesenstadt and then on to Treblinka. She was transported form Stuttgart to Theriesenstadt on 22 August 1942 and then on to Treblinka on 26 September 1942. She was most likely exterminated immediately. This is thanks to the records kept at Yad Vashem. She was prisoner 811 in the first transport and 1159 in the second. I have searched several other databases and this is the only one that has a record of her to date. This time they did ask for her maiden name. I’m still ploughing through the links offered by the Holocaust Task Force, of which this is one. I’m reading lots of survivor stories. There is so much material. There is, however, only a few examples of accounts made at the time. Many have been reconfigured through memory. The photographs are extremely useful.

Hitler’s Face – A Lighter Side to Something Dark?

I was warned the very first time that I started this project that it might “get a bit grizzly”. It is a problem, in fact. I’m a great believer that the darkest of stories must be lifted with a little humour and the funniest of tales needs a shadow to give it depth – but is there any place for humour in a Holocaust story?

In this case I think there is. Hani has a sweet tooth, so the cheese cake remains a theme. It’s not exactly humorous and shouldn’t be these days with all of our concerns about eating disorders and the fact that soon within the story it won’t be an option. But it gives a welcome lighter tone.  

However, I do have to admit that I found myself tittering when Christoph decided that there would be a war because “nobody will let our fury-chops steal Lebensraum”. Old “fury-chops”?! Where did that come from?

I guess in part from John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The same cross-language joke exists there. Hitler is referred to as the Fury. Quite an apt name. I think. In my case, I’m leaning towards “furry” and I guess Christophe and Hani see something a little funny in Hitler’s face with his neat little moustache. Did anyone see that as funny back in 1939? Possibly not, though it’s certainly played on a lot in Chaplain’s The Great Dictator.

Whatever happens, Christophe is one of the good guys and has seen through the dictator. Whether “old furry-chops” will last through to the final edit, I’m not sure. I am certain, though, that a few lighter moments must be allowed in this novel which must not present a too sanitized version of the Holocaust.