Fritz and Kurt

Product Information

Although the subject matter is harrowing, the story has been specially adapted for young readers and is a testament to love and the strength of the human spirit, as well as a warning to future generations. Fritz And Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield is a powerful historical novel for children aged ten years and over.

Fritz and Kurt — Just Imagine Fritz and Kurt — Just Imagine

This is a true story about the Kleinmann family, with the main focus being on the sons, Fritz and Kurt. The family live in Vienna and we find out what happens after Hitler is declared the leader of Austria. We are told through the story how Jews were treated and how the family managed as war breaks out.

A retelling of the Sunday Times bestselling The Boy Who Followed his Father into Auschwitz, a Daily Mail and Sunday Express book of the year. About This Edition ISBN: Fritz, along with his father, is taken to a Nazi prison camp, a terrible place, full of fear. When his father is sent to a certain death, Fritz can't face losing his beloved Papa. He chooses to go with him and fight for survival. This new version of the story will be completely rewritten for middle-grade readers aged 9+ and willeducate and inspire children with the powerful real-life account of two brothers’ experiences during theHolocaust. Since the events of the book really did happen to a child, it’s right that children should be able to read about them — though nine is too young. Meanwhile, Kurt must go on a frightening journey, all alone, to seek safety on the far side of the world.

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy

He got food from civilians and shared it with his friends, and then was able to convince civilians to bring guns into the camp,” says Kurt. “Eventually, he survived by swapping identities with a dead man. Some of these stories are almost incomprehensible to me.” Survival in Vienna In an introduction, the author sets the story of Fritz and Kurt in its historical context, explaining what the Holocaust was, how it came about and who was affected. There are also notes for parents, guardians and teachers who may wish to understand how the story is being presented.

Fritz revisiting Auschwitz concentration camp around 1980. Photograph: Reinhold Gärtner Language barrier Of course, some children can relate to these experiences. Syria and Ukraine are just two places where the UK and many other countries have accepted those fleeing their homes. This is another thing Jeremy wants people to get from both versions of his book. “The experience of refugees, and how refugees are viewed.” Jeremy explained that Jewish refugees to Britain and America were viewed in the exact same way in the 1930s as refugees are seen now. The consequences of this resistance is something he wants readers to understand, because people are using very similar language. “If people were more willing to accept refugees, the Holocaust would have been so much less.” Sadly, it is comparable to what is still happening in parts of the world today. Being Jewish, the Kleinmann family were hated by the Nazis. Older brother Fritz and his father were sent away to a brutal prison camp where they lived with cruelty and suffering every day. Then, when Papa was sent to an extermination camp, Fritz chose to go with him rather than be parted from him. In 1938, the Nazis come to Vienna. They despise everyone who is not an Ayran, which meant foreigners, people of colour, traveller folk, gay people and anyone who had different beliefs, especially Jews. Fritz and Kurt’s family are Jews, which puts them in great danger. When the Nazis take over Austria, four different paths await each of the family's four children. Kurt, the youngest, manages to travel all alone to a new life in America. Edith, the eldest, secures a position as a maid in England while her sister, Herta, stays in Vienna with her mother until both are transported to the Ostland. 14-year-old Fritz is sent to Buchenwald with his father.

Andrew Lownie Literary Agency :: Book :: Fritz and Kurt

The Kleinmann family in 1938 featuring Gustav (second left) and Fritz (fourth left). Photograph: Peter Patten And yet he has every good reason to want to forget, for his own family’s story is as tragic as it is miraculous. Summary: Initially seeming too earnest in its Reithian levels of detail, and forever damning the SS as ugly in ways that evoke their own phrenologists, this still ended up a great, wide-access window to the Shoah. This fairly lengthy junior read could well give much more than countless textbooks on the Nazi camp system.Brothers Fritz and Kurt Kleinmann were fifteen and eight respectively when Nazi Germany invaded Austria. In a very short time, the life they had known in Vienna, the ‘before Hitler came’ in Kurt’s words, was destroyed. With so many of their Jewish neighbours, Fritz and his father were taken prisoner and transported to Nazi prison camps, first Buchenwald, then Auschwitz. The family managed to send two of their children abroad – Edith went to England, and Kurt to America, making the long, dangerous journey on his own aged just ten. The greater part of the book however describes what happened to Fritz and his papa, who managed to stay together, Fritz choosing to go with his father to Auschwitz even when he could have stayed in the relatively safer Buchenwald. LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Author Luke Palmer introduces his new book, Play (Firefly Press) about four boys growing up together, the challenges, the friendships, and what hap...

Fritz and Kurt | BookTrust

Meanwhile the family is trying to get the other children to safety. One sister did escape to a job in England and eventually papers are procured for Kurt to travel to the United States. For Kurt the trauma of leaving all his family behind to travel halfway across the world to a country with a different language and customs is considerable but the main focus of the story is on the plight of Fritz and his father. As the title of the adult novel indicates Fritz did indeed choose to follow his father on the transport to Auschwitz and to almost certain death, rather than be separated. The strength of their relationship is deeply moving and beautifully conveyed. The story of how they survived until war ended is completely remarkable and so although harrowing the book ultimately has a very positive and inspirational message about human resilience and courage. In the words of Dronfield - “ it is vitally important to remember what happened in those terrible years, and to do whatever we can to make sure nothing like it never occurs again […] we have to begin with memories and knowledge of what happened in the past, with understanding, and with compassion for our fellow human beings – all of them, not just the ones who look like us to share our beliefs.”

The impact of the illustrations certainly contributes to the effectiveness of the storytelling in what deserves to become as much of a classic as Ann Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. Of necessity, some of the brutality of concentration camp life has to be greyed out for this age group (it’s aimed at nine plus). At the end of last year, I was invited by the Holocaust Education Trust to a series of seminars about the Holocaust, which included a trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz- Birkenau. Following this educational experience and the visit, I made a promise to myself that I would continue to educate myself and those around me on the horrific events that happened during the Holocaust and inhumanly treatment of Jewish community. The harrowing true story of a Hungarian Jewish boy and his mother and their journey to – and escape from – Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in the Second World War. Extraordinary and moving. Easy four stars for the young readers' version of "The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz" - with some extra material not included in the first variant as it didn't surface in time. It's certainly not flawless, but whatever impact the older read had on the markets, this doesn't deserve any less - it will certainly tell about the War and the Holocaust with more clarity than a whole shelf of coursebooks.