This journal, published with Fritz’s memoir as The Dog Will Not Die (1995), forms the bedrock of Jeremy Dronfield’s novelistic retelling of those terrible years. Older brother Fritz and his father were sent away to a brutal prison camp where they lived with cruelty and suffering every day. It barely needs to be said that the two suffered a catalogue of torture, misery and near-death there for six years.

Fritz and Kurt – Books For Keeps Fritz and Kurt – Books For Keeps

The story moves between the tale of their lives in various concentration camps and that of Kurt, the younger son, who was transported to America to start a new life.

I am in awe of the spirit of Gustav and Fritz throughout their experiences not to mention the hardships faced by the wider family as the onslaught of the Nazis tears them apart. There are lots of first person accounts of the Holocaust but this is an important addition, with lessons to apply to the world today. Jeremy Dronfield has re-written his book The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz for children.

Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene

He knew it was in preparation, though, and was thrilled that his story would be read by coming generations of young readers. Jeremy Dronfield, in Fritz and Kurt, has achieved the outstanding, he has taken a true story, a tragic, shocking and at its heart uplifting tale of two brothers and the horrors they faced when the Nazi’s went to Vienna during the second world war. Like bloodthirsty dogs, Jewish people were hunted down by Hitler's loyal subjects, street by street and many were taken away to an unknown fate. My new book, Fritz and Kurt, tells the extraordinary true story of two Jewish brothers in the Holocaust.This fairly lengthy junior read could well give much more than countless textbooks on the Nazi camp system. Time starts to pass without any sense or structure as Jewish community’s are broken down, thinned out by either killing on sight or arrests. Fritz and Kurtinterweaves two incredible true stories, following the brothers of the title who – on opposite sides ofthe world – navigate one of the most appalling periods in modern history. It’s hard to comprehend that this was only barely 78 years ago, the average lifespan of a modern day European man or woman. I want to reassure you, dear reader, that this story is accurately pitched, so please do not worry, your child or children will NOT be reading words with vivid descriptions of starvation, torture, or death.

Fritz and Kurt : Jeremy Dronfield (author), : 9780241565742 Fritz and Kurt : Jeremy Dronfield (author), : 9780241565742

It was published in 2019 as The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz and became an international bestseller, translated into twenty languages. With so many of their Jewish neighbours, Fritz and his father were taken prisoner and transported to Nazi prison camps, first Buchenwald, then Auschwitz. Only Fritz’s oldest sister, Edith and his younger brother, Kurt are able to get out of German-occupied Europe to avoid persecution. With the knowledge that the author was close to Kurt Kleinmann, the Kurt of the title, children will be reassured to know that he survived and that his family have given the book their blessing.Of the rise of right-wing politics worldwide, he adds: “I’m not a Trump supporter by any means, and I’m very much concerned with the rise of anti-Semitism in the US and what I’m hearing about neo-Nazis in Europe. Six people tell their stories of living through the Holocaust as children in this compelling and deeply thought-provoking graphic novel-style book. It is fairly descriptive of the horror of this time, so definitely recommended for mature upper primary readers and secondary school readers.

Book review: Fritz and Kurt - A moving Shoah book for older

Hence my ability to read this junior retelling of The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz in full ignorance of the original, adult version. This review was written by Jane Atkin I am a Year 3 teacher in a Wandsworth Primary School and have a wealth of experience across key stage 2. The way father and son wrote and spoke about their bond and what happened… Jeremy felt “so strongly that this was a story that had to be told. I rate this a five out of five because even though the story was depressing and had a mourning feeling, the description was amazing and the inspiration I got from it is undeniable.

Biography: Jeremy Dronfield (Author) Jeremy Dronfield is a biographer, historian, novelist and former archaeologist. This applies to choosing texts for the classroom – it is one of the main reasons Just Imagine exists. When the horror of Fritz's experience becomes too much, the narrative cuts deftly to the relative safety of Kurt. One sister did escape to a job in England and eventually papers are procured for Kurt to travel to the United States.