The Kleinmann family in 1938 featuring Gustav (second left) and Fritz (fourth left). Photograph: Peter Patten Mauthausen was the destination towards which father and son were going when Gustav persuaded his son to leap from a speeding train of starving men and corpses, out into a snowdrift. If there are moments when Dronfield’s extraordinary book sounds more like a peculiarly gruesome thriller, readers should remind themselves that none of this is fiction. These horrors happened. Witnesses such as Gustav and Fritz survived and told their tales to ensure that their past should never be repeated. The rest is up to us. 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. 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.

When Hitler came’: Holocaust survivor Kurt Kleinmann and his ‘When Hitler came’: Holocaust survivor Kurt Kleinmann and his

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. I felt strongly that it had to be a new book, written specially for children – not just an abridged or simplified edition of the original. Brothers Fritz and Kurt would be in the foreground, the story told from their viewpoints. And while some harrowing events would have to be either omitted or written in a way children could cope with, it mustn’t downplay the realities of the Holocaust. Writing Fritz and Kurt has been one of the greatest creative challenges I’ve ever faced. Discovering David Ziggy Greene’s art was a major step – his beautiful touch with stark, angular figures is perfect, with a charm and humour that help make the subject accessible for kids.My new book, Fritz and Kurt, tells the extraordinary true story of two Jewish brothers in the Holocaust. It’s been nearly ten years in the making. I first discovered the story in 2013, when I learned of the existence of a secret concentration camp diary written by Gustav Kleinmann, the father of Fritz and Kurt. Fritz and Kurt has the best interests of the reader and the subject matter at its heart. It is a new version for younger readers of Jeremy Dronfield’s internationally bestselling The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz. What is incredible is that these are narrative nonfiction texts. I found out just how incredibly true they are, how much research went into them, and how education was at the forefront of their creation. My conversation with Jeremy Dronfield was fascinating, and sharing it here is a privilege. Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > 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.

Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield | WHSmith Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield | WHSmith

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. But what information needs to be told, and what are young readers not ready to learn about? Unsurprisingly, “anything essential to the story” is the short answer. Although, how do we decide what is essential? Jeremy explained that a lot was left out, especially those things which “would be too upsetting”. For example, Jeremy did learn of the fate of the mother and eldest daughter, actually discovering this in his research. Jeremy also had to find ways to tell essential events in a way that weren’t too graphic and “age appropriate”. A process which included the “writing, rewriting and scrapping and rewriting” of one scene in particular. Other scenes were left in because they had been “imprinted” in the memories of those involved.

LoveReading4Kids Says

A story based on real-life. A narrative on harrowing events: The Holocaust. Fritz and Kurt is a story about a Jewish family, The Kleinman's, living in Austria during the 1930s; a time when their world was seemingly changed overnight and ripped apart. Hitler invaded, blaming Jewish people for the demise of Germany: they are sent to concentration camps or executed. Jewish residents are sought out, humiliated and bullied - once friends but now enemies.