First sentence: Anna was walking home from school with Elsbeth, a girl in her class. A lot of snow had fallen in Berlin that winter. It did not melt, so the street cleaners had swept it to the edge of the pavement, and there it had lain for weeks in sad, greying heaps.

Premise/plot: Anna and her family are Jewish. In the week leading up to elections, her father flees Germany just in case Hitler wins the election. If Hitler does win, his family will follow him to Switzerland. (The dad is a writer. His views will not be appreciated by Hitler and the Nazi party.) He tries to sell enough of his writing in Switzerland...and then France. But the economy of the 1930s isn't all that great. The family left everything behind--including Anna's pink rabbit--and are essentially penniless. By the end of the novel, Anna and her brother, Max, I believe have been sent to England.

The novel takes place circa 1933/1934.

My thoughts: This is my second time to read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. It is set in the early 1930s. Many of the policies had not come into play yet. There were warning signs which this family heeds. But it is very early days. It is set in Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. (The last chapter is set in England.) I believe this one is in part autobiography. I don't know how much is based on her experiences and how much is pure fiction. The novel's conflict is subtle and perhaps more about a family's economic and financial struggles as they are displaced. The novel is about learning new languages, trying to economize as much as possible, struggling to make ends meet. Perhaps subtle isn't the best word. I mean that this isn't so driven by external events happening--like so many books set during the second world war. ( )

La llegada de Hitler al poder va a cambiar radicalmente la vida de Anna y su familia. En su huida del horror nazi, deberán abandonar su país y dejar atrás muchas cosas queridas, como su conejo de peluche. Con él, también se quedará su infancia.

I've read quite a few memoirs for children by Holocaust survivors, and this would not be my first choice to recommend to others. Some people might criticize the book because the story isn't about hiding (like Anne Frank's) or about concentration camps (like Wiesel's). It's about the family fleeing Germany. But this is her story, her family's story, and it's good that she documented their story. But it's not an engaging read. The book feels a little "stiff," a little "dry," and while that is ok for a document, it's not ok for a book for children to read. Have them read a book like The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss instead.
I give it a 3 because of the validity of the subject, but the read felt like a 2. ( )

Brilliant - read it before but didn’t remember it, it didn’t mean so much to me previously I guess. Now going to go straight on and read the others in the trilogy

Tale of Kerr's own childhood and how her family was forced to flee germany when the Nazi part came to power. It's a kids book but has a couple of quite disturbing parts which is to be expected with Nazi's around. More interesting than entertaining. ( )