Read more: Artists After the Escape: Finding home in a foreign land Fleeing Germany with just a few belongings Image: Sommerhaus/Warner Bros. The novel had already been adapted into a German TV movie in 1978 now, almost half a century later, a new adaptation has been made for the big screen. It was originally published in English, and came out two years later in German, translated by Annemarie Böll, the wife of Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll. The semi-autobiographical book was not only required reading in many schools in Germany, it was also read by many adults. Many people are familiar with this scene, having read it in Judith Kerr's well-known 1971 novel for children, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Should she pick her beloved pink rabbit or her oldest stuffed animal, the one she's had since her earliest childhood? With a heavy heart, the nine-year-old finally decides to leave her rabbit behind in Berlin.įrom then on, the rabbit dominates Anna's thoughts, as her family flees the Nazis via Zurich, and then Paris, to finally land in London. Her parents will only allow her to take one single stuffed toy with her to Switzerland.

This new paperback edition celebrates fifty years of this extraordinary story.Anna (Riva Krymalowski) is on the verge of tears. It has gone on to become a beloved classic that is required reading for many children all over the world and is an unforgettable introduction to the real-life impact of the Second World War. Judith Kerr wrote When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit fifty years ago, based on her own journey, so that her own children would know where she came from and the lengths to which her parents went to keep her and her brother safe. This is the start of a huge adventure, sometimes frightening, very often funny and always exciting.

But one day she and her brother Max are rushed out of Germany in alarming secrecy, away from everything they know. This is what happened to Anna in 1933.Īnna is too busy with her schoolwork and tobogganing to listen to the talk of Hitler. Suppose that without your noticing, it became dangerous for some people to live in it any longer, and you found, to your surprise, that your own father was one of those people. This beautiful new edition celebrates the fifty year anniversary of an adventure that Michael Morpurgo called “The most life-enhancing book you could ever wish to read.” This semi-autobiographical classic, written by the beloved Judith Kerr, tells the story of a Jewish family escaping Germany in the days before the Second World War.

When hitler stole my pink rabbit