Fritz and Kurt

Product Information

He came to writing via a circuitous route. His first serious stopover in life was as an archaeologist. After a few years in rescue excavation, he did his doctoral research at Cambridge University, on the subject of art and religion in prehistoric Ireland. His thesis was published as a series of papers in international journals including Antiquity and Current Anthropology. 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: It is not my place to give more importance to one historical event than another. There are those, however, that have caused more trauma, pain and suffering than anyone can possibly imagine. Talking about these in a classroom to young learners is a challenge. We need the combination of trust and due diligence more than ever. These reservations aside, the narration is extraordinarily touching. The child’s perspective is believable and Dronfield is skilled at using small details to bring a scene home.The book is appealingly and appropriately illustrated by David Ziggy Greene.

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

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. Before and during the Second World War in the middle of the 20 th century, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler formulated a plan to get rid of people who were ‘different’. 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. Fritz And Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield is a powerful historical novel for children aged ten years and over.

I’m immensely proud of this book, and sorry that Kurt did not live to see it published. He knew it was in preparation, though, and was thrilled that his story would be read by coming generations of young readers. This book and its predecessor are my memorial to Kurt, to Fritz, and to their extraordinary family. Kurt still was sound in Vienna, but he had to move soon. His mother sent him to America on the Sidboney and live with his Aunt. As well as simple words telling the story, the whole book is powerfully and yet simply illustrated by Ziggy Greene.

Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield (Paperback) Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield (Paperback)

The thing about my family's story, is that you have murder, as in my mother and sister [who were murdered at a Minsk concentration camp] and you have survival – my other sister and myself – and then you also have the element of rescue with my father and brother," he notes. Careful consideration and due diligence are parts of the good practice of anyone doing their job properly. This applies to choosing texts for the classroom – it is one of the main reasons Just Imagine exists. When it comes to the well-being of individual children in the classroom, the teacher will ultimately know what is suitable. When it comes to factual and accurate information, we place trust in the authors (including illustrators), editors and publishers to carry out due diligence. The novel is the true story of brothers Fritz and Kurt who lived in Vienna in 1938 as the story opens. They were Jewish and at the time 180,000 Jewish people lived in Vienna.The ironies continue. Gustav’s new ally at Monowitz was an ex-soldier and co-worker who simply couldn’t credit that Hitler would imprison Jews without cause. But neither could Gustav credit the number of closed trains he saw carrying thousands of Hungarian Jews to their deaths. “And all this in the 20th century,” he wrote with disbelief. A year later, starving at Mauthausen, a camp in Upper Austria, Gustav barely escaped being massacred by ferociously antisemitic Hungarian guards. (The Russians, by contrast, treated all camp inmates with respect.) 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. In this extraordinary true story, Fritz and Kurt must face unimaginable hardships, and the two brothers wonder if they will ever return home... 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. 'Extraordinary' - Observer.

My Conversation with Jeremy Dronfield — Just Imagine

For three years, Jeremy used his experience as an academic researcher and writer to find out more. And make it accessible. As the research continued, he came to realise something. As far as he could tell, this is “completely unique in the whole history of the Holocaust.” A Jewish father and son “stayed alive together for five and a half years in concentration camps. And then leave a record.” It’s important to remember, too, that during those years, there were some “extremely dangerous brushes with death”. It was extraordinary that either survived, let alone both of them. Fritz is taken to a concentration camp along with his father. When his father is sent to Auschwitz, he has a choice to follow his father and risk his life or stay in his position and continue his peace. When he follows his father he has no choice but to escape from the carriage. Ultimately, if this book's older relative did for its target audience what this has the ability to do for its own, it's easy to see why the first book was such a success. (And I can't ignore the mention late on of facts that came to light after the first book was presented.) I wish this a similar impact, and I'm grateful for the publishers sending me a review copy. A strong four stars, if not more, from me. After that book came out, many people who had been moved and inspired by the Kleinmann family’s story told me that they wished their children could read my book. At its core, it’s a story about children living through one of history’s greatest tragedies; it’s about children’s courage, love, and resilience. Young readers should be able to read it for themselves. Fritz and his Papa were sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939, the beginning of a five-year struggle of loss, endurance, resistance and escape. The diary tells how, in 1942, when Papa was transferred to Auschwitz, Fritz volunteered to go with him. Fritz knew they would probably die there, but he couldn’t bear to be without his beloved Papa. When I read the diary’s account of that decision, I knew I had to tell this phenomenal story. The diary is too patchy and difficult to understand in itself (unless you’re a Holocaust historian), so I researched around it, found archived interviews left behind by Fritz (who died in 2009), and located Fritz’s brother, Kurt, who was still alive and living in America.I love how the characters evolve throughout and never lose hope of freedom. Illustrations peppered throughout the book bring the story to life. This story has been written for younger readers to help them understand what life was like for Jewish people during the holocaust. Due to its nature, this book would be better suited to upper KS2 and would support the teaching of WWII well. The author has exercised care and sensitivity in catering to a younger audience whilst instilling an awareness of the living nightmare that Jewish people suffered during the holocaust.

Julia’s review of Fritz and Kurt - Goodreads

It is an incredibly moving book, with many harrowing details and scenes. Whilst not glossing over them, it doesn’t go into too much detail. It does highlight the many kindnesses that were shown to Fritz and Gustav during their time in various concentration camps, and this is a great positive to take from reading it. The author has painstakingly researched the family’s history and got to talk to Kurt about his story and life in America. 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. 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. It certainly opened my eyes, just months after John Boyne did an adults-only sequel to his different covers for different ages The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, to see this be a junior rewrite of a mass market adult Holocaust book. I was left with the feeling this felt the need to be more educational than the adult equivalent. I also was left with the feeling that, in being so repetitive, the author did not have a firm grasp on his target audience's intelligence before he started. But I may have been wrong in seeing that as an issue. Fritz And Kurt is a read suitable for any age, not just children. You will be full of admiration for the bravery of the brothers who lived through a time of great evil.I read this book before handing it over to my son, as he has taken an interest in stories from the war. Classrooms have to ultimately be places of hope. So, can reading about an event like the Holocaust be a positive experience? The feeling Jeremy has is “positive in the sense that it is a story of survival, hope, love and courage.” Although, one thing that perhaps does not come across so explicitly in this version, because of the child’s viewpoint, is “their father’s determination to survive. How firmly he believed he was going to survive.” Even when the worst things are happening around him, Gustav was writing “I will not let these SS murderers grind me down.” Which Jeremy thinks “was a big part in what enabled Gustav and Fritz to survive.” Gustav never lost his faith or devotion to his son. It’s part of the positivity that comes through. Determination, courage, faith, belief, hope. Knowing these exist, Jeremy continues, through all of life’s challenges and difficulties, is inspiring.