Title: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Author: Judith Kerr

Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

Rating: 5 out of 5

I was roaming the bookshelves in the children’s section of our local library a few months ago when a book title caught my attention: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

I felt like this was an odd book for the children’s section, even if it was middle grade, at least based on the title. I took it home and started to read it and was pulled in quickly. The only issue was that the book was old and the mildew smell triggered my allergies and gave me a weird headache. I really wanted to finish the book, though, so I found a cheap copy on Thriftbooks and prayed it wouldn’t have that “way too old” book smell.

It did have a bit of an old book smell but it wasn’t enough to keep me from reading and finishing it last week. While the topic of this book is heavy, there are some humorous and sweet moments that balance out the dark subject matter.

The book is written by children’s book author Judith Kerr and is semi-autobiographical. It is the first book in a four-book series called Out of The Hitler Time. Kerr wrote 48 children’s books besides this series. A German movie based on When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and directed by Oscar-nominated director Caroline Link was released in 2019, the same year Kerr died at the age of 95.

I plan to watch it and write about it in a future blog post.

 Kerr changed the name of the characters and fictionalized parts of the story of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, but the story is very close to the real-life story of her and her family and their escape from Germany in 1933.

In the book, Anna is the main character’s name. She has a brother Max and her parents who are just called Mama and Papa. Anna’s family is Jewish and her papa is a newspaper columnist who has been very critical of the Nazi party.

In the beginning of the book, as it begins to appear it will become a reality that the Nazi party will be elected, Anna and her friends begin to discuss Adolf Hitler and what his election might mean for the country. They aren’t sure what to make of him or the Nazi party but Anna’s non-Jewish friend, Elsbeth, announces to Anna that after Hitler gets elected he’s going to “take care of the Jews.”

“It’s another picture of that man,’ said Elsbeth. ‘My little sister saw one yesterday and thought it was Charlie Chaplin.’

Anna looked at the staring eyes, the grim expression. She said, ‘It’s not a bit like Charlie Chaplin except for the moustache.’

They spelled out the name under the photograph. Adolf Hitler.”

Anna wakes up one morning after this discussion and finds out Papa has disappeared. Mama tells her that her father has gone to Switzerland and they are all going to meet him to live there, though she isn’t sure for how long.

Since the family can only take enough to fit inside a few suitcases, Anna has to decide which toys to take with her.

“Deciding which toys to take was the hardest part. They naturally wanted to take the games compendium but it was too big. In the end there was only room for some books and one of Anna’s stuffed toys. Should she choose Pink Rabbit or a newly acquired wooly dog? It seemed a pity to leave the dog when she had hardly had time to play with it, and Heimpi packed it for her. Max took his football. They could always have more things sent on to them in Switzerland, said Mama.”

Heimpi is the family’s nanny. She’s supposed to move with them, but in the end, she can’t get across the border and finds a new family to work for.

The family leaves on a train and while traveling Anna begins to feel sick. Her Papa left with a cold and it’s clear she now has it. By the time they arrive in Lake Zurich, Switzerland, Anna is extremely sick and falls in and out of sleep for days as she tries to recover. At one point the doctor that comes to check on her says he’s concerned she might not make it.

When she wakes up recovered, she learns the details about her father’s escape and her surroundings. Her brother, Max, explains to her what has happened in Germany. Hitler has been elected and their house was raided by the Nazis.

Trying to make light of the situation, Anna and Max joke about the toys that Hitler is probably playing with at their house, including Pink Rabbit. The joking is their way of dealing with the sadness and fear, of course.

“When she was safely back in bed, she said, ‘Max, this . . .  confiscation of property, whatever it’s called – did the Nazis take everything – even our things?”

Max nodded.

Anna tried to imagine it. The piano was gone . .  the dining room curtains with the flowers. . . her bed . . .all her toys, which included her stuffed Pink Rabbit. For a moment she felt terribly sad about Pink Rabbit. It had had embroidered black eyes – the original glass ones had fallen out years before – and an endearing habit of collapsing on its paws. Its fur, though no longer very pink had been soft and familiar. How could she have ever chosen to pack that characterless wooly dog in its stead? It had been a terrible mistake, and now she would never be able to put it right.

‘I always knew we should have brought the games compendium,” said Max. “Hitler’s probably playing Snakes and Ladders with it this very minute.”

‘And snuggling my Pink Rabbit!’ said Anna and laughed.

But some tears had come into her eyes and were running down her cheeks all at the same time.”

The family stays in a small tavern (or a Gasthof) in Lake Zurich for the next six months. Papa looks for work but it’s hard to find a paying job in newspapers in that area.

The family is mainly welcomed into the community. Adjusting to their new life is a challenge but eventually, they make friends. During one playdate with their new friends, a new set of children come to play. Their family is visiting the lake but they don’t want to play with Anna and Max because they are Jewish.

At one point their uncle Julius, who isn’t actually their uncle but a family friend who they call uncle, visits and tells their parents about how bad things are getting in Germany. He decides not to leave and laments about missing going to the zoo with the children. The letters he sends to the family in the future are coded and get sadder and sadder each time.

Anna had once imagined what it would be like to have a tough life after reading a story about someone who had a rough life but became famous. She thinks about this on her tenth birthday, which she celebrates in Switzerland instead of Germany where she wanted to be instead.

“Am I ten yet?” asked Anna. Papa looked at his watch.

“Ten years old exactly.” He hugged her. “Happy, happy birthday, and very many happy returns.”

And just as he said it the boat’s lights came on. There was only a sprinkling of white bulbs around the rails which left the dock almost as dark as before, but the cabin suddenly glowed yellow and at the back of the boat the ship’s lantern shone a brilliant purply-blue.

“Isn’t it lovely!” cried Anna and somehow, suddenly, she no longer minded about her birthday and her presents. It seemed rather fine and adventurous to be a refugee, to have no home and to not know where one was going to live. Perhaps a a pinch it might even count as a difficult childhood like the one in Gunther’s book and she would end up being famous.

As the boat steamed back to Zurich she snuggled up to Papa and they watched the blue light from the ship’s lantern trailing through the dark water behind them.

“I think I might quite like being a refugee,” said Anna.

Eventually, Papa needs to find work and travels to Paris to look for a newspaper job. He returns and takes Mama with him so they can look for a place to live. They leave the children but they are checked on by the tavern owner.

The family moves to Paris and they all have to learn French, which is a struggle for Anna until one day it clicks for her and she begins to speak it fluently.

By then, though, Papa has decided they will move to England in hopes he can find even more work as a columnist and writer. A movie company has even offered to make a movie from a screenplay he’s written. From what I understand the second book in this series continues the family’s story while in England.

There are so many moving and heartbreaking quotes in this book.

When Anna tells her father she doesn’t want to leave Paris, he assures her they will return again one day.

″‘We’ll come back,’ said Papa.
‘I know,’ said Anna.
She remembered how she had felt when they had gone back to the Gasthof Zwirn for the holidays and added, ‘But it won’t be the same- we won’t belong. Do you think we’ll ever really belong anywhere?’
‘I suppose not,’ said Papa.”  ‘Not the way people belong who have lived in one place all their lives. But we’ll belong a little in lots of places, and I think that may be just as good.‘”

Link, the director of the film based on the book, said about the story that “it is not shocking but still deep.”

That is exactly the takeaway I had after reading it. I hope to read the rest of the books of the series soon and when Little Miss is a little older I will either read the books to her or have her read them herself.

I started this book in July or August and finished it about two weeks after the massacre occurred in Israel on Oct. 7.

I’ve read many stories about the horrible treatment of the Jews during and prior to World War II either fictional based on real events or non-fictional.

I won’t get too much into the specifics of the conflict currently going on right now, but I will say that I’ll never get used to the complete idiocy of hating a group of people simply because they are of a different faith or ethnicity than you. I’ll also never get used to the barbarism and sick actions against the Jewish people since pretty much the beginning of time. On October 7 we saw it happening again.

I found myself crying as I read the book because, after the Holocaust, the world said, “Never again,” but here we are again, letting it happen and, once again, turning a blind eye to the fact that antisemitism is very real and still very much alive.