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Escape from Berlin #1-3
Escape from Berlin
Good-bye Marianne - As autumn turns toward winter in 1938 Berlin, life for Marianne Kohn, a young Jewish girl, begins to crumble. First there was the burning of the neighborhood shops. Then her father, a bookseller, must leave the family and go into hiding. No longer allowed to go to school or even sit in a café, Marianne's only comfort is her beloved mother.
Remember Me - Young Marianne is one of the lucky ones. She has escaped on the first Kindertransport organized to take Jewish children out of Germany to safety in Britain. At first Marianne is desperate. Marianne speaks little English and is made to feel unwelcomed in her sponsor's home and, most of all, she misses her mother terribly. As the months pass, she realizes that she cannot control the circumstances around her. She must rely on herself if she is to survive.
Finding Sophie - Sophie Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she belong?
Remember Me - Young Marianne is one of the lucky ones. She has escaped on the first Kindertransport organized to take Jewish children out of Germany to safety in Britain. At first Marianne is desperate. Marianne speaks little English and is made to feel unwelcomed in her sponsor's home and, most of all, she misses her mother terribly. As the months pass, she realizes that she cannot control the circumstances around her. She must rely on herself if she is to survive.
Finding Sophie - Sophie Mandel was only seven years old when she arrived in London on the first Kindertransport from Germany. She has grown up with a friend of her parents, a woman she calls Aunt Em, and despite the war and its deprivations, she has made a good life for herself in England with her foster mother. She has even stopped thinking about the parents she left behind. Now the war is over, and fourteen-year-old Sophie is faced with a terrible dilemma. Where does she belong?
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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153 people want to read
About the author
Irene N. Watts
28 books13 followersIrene N. Watts is a German-born Canadian writer and educator. She was born in Berlin in 1931 and lived there for seven years. She moved to the United Kingdom by way of Kindertransport and was educated in England and Wales. Watts earned degrees in English literature and modern history at Cardiff University.
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October 23, 2013
“For those who do not look away”
(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.)
In the nine months before the outbreak of World War II, and thanks to the efforts of Jewish and Quaker delegates from Germany and Austria, some 10,000 children were ferried to safety in Great Britain. Most of the children rescued through Kindertransport were Jewish, living in Nazi Germany and neighboring Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and thus in danger of persecution; others were orphans in need of more permanent care during wartime. The children were transported to England, where they were placed in foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. (Among those rescued? None other than noted American sex therapist - and former Israeli scout and sniper - Dr. Ruth Westheimer. The Wiki entry on Kindertransport makes for interesting reading, and also provides a list of memoirs and historical novels written about this oft-forgot piece of WWII history.)
Author and playwright Irene N. Watts arrived in England via Kindertransport on December 10, 1938. She was just seven years old (the same age as protagonist Sophie) and traveled alone. While the events in Escape from Berlin are not autobiographical, the story is no doubt heavily influenced by the experiences of Watts and children like her. December 1, 2013, marks the 75th anniversary of the first Kindertransport; Good-Bye Marianne, Remember Me, and Finding Sophie are published together here for the first time in honor of the occasion.
Marianne Kohn has spent all of her eleven years in living Berlin with her mother and father. The growing air of anti-Semitism, while sometimes puzzling, is part of Marianne’s daily landscape: she’s used to signs barring admittance to “Jews and dogs,” and public park benches (or entire parks) which are reserved for Aryans only. In the days leading up to World War II, however, life grows increasingly perilous for her family. Marianne is expelled from school when the government passes a new law preventing Jews from attending public schools; similarly, the Nazis prohibit Jews from owning businesses, thus forcing her father to sell his beloved book shop. Even this doesn’t save him from scrutiny, however; the new owner finds some banned books in stock and promptly reports him to the authorities. (“Berlin was full of eyes,” Marianne recalls.) Though he’s ultimately released by the Gestapo, Vati goes into hiding. Faced with dwindling options, Mrs. Kohn decides to do the unthinkable: send Marianne away to England, where she’ll be safe from persecution. Thanks to her volunteer work at an orphanage, Mutti is able to secure a place for Marianne aboard the very first Kindertransport run. The adults wait with bated breath: will the Nazis honor their agreement and allow the train to leave undisturbed? What will become of their children? Is this goodbye their last?
Among those children sharing Marianne’s train car is seven-year-old Sophie Mandel. Hoisting her daughter into the car just seconds before departure, Sophie’s mother Charlotte beseeches Marianne to care for the little girl on their travels. Though their time together is short, the two forge a bond that outlasts the war - a connection that’s rekindled the moment they spot one another across the throngs crowding Piccadilly Circus on V-E Day. Marianne and Sophie rediscover one another at a pivotal moment in their young lives: now that the war is over, how will their existence – forever precarious, always shifting – change?
Escape from Berlin is a harrowing and heartbreaking look at war, genocide, and hatred through a child’s eyes. The girls offer unique perspectives on what it was like to live as Jews in Nazi Germany, refugees in wartime England, and evacuees in rural Wales.
Their experiences couldn’t be more different; whereas Sophie is lucky enough to be taken in by family friend Aunt Em, who loves her like her own, Marianne is shuffled from one lackluster foster home to another. Her initial sponsor, Mrs. Abercrombie Jones – “Aunt Vera” for short – was angling for a 14-year-old refugee so that she could keep the girl home from school and exploit her as an unpaid domestic servant. She only “settles” for Marianne to avoid embarrassment. Among other indignities, Mr. and Mrs. Jones laugh at her poor English, force Marianne to attend church, and downplay the gravity of the events unfolding back in Germany. (Admonishing Marianne for her efforts to find work – and thus temporary residence – for her parents, Vera scoffs, “They must wait their turn like other refugees. It is not a question of saving, but of good manners.”) When her school is evacuated to Wales, Marianne first stays at a Methodist home for unwed mothers; upon discovering that she’s Jewish (“Satan!”), the nun promptly throws her out – in the dark of night. Then it’s on to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts who, nearly delusional with grief, attempt to remake Marianne in the image of their deceased daughter. In additional to general smothering and forced intimacy, they rename the poor girl and make her eat pig flesh. Their false love quickly turns to disgust and anger when Marianne’s headmistress requests a transfer on her behalf.
In contrast, Sophie couldn’t be happier living with Aunt Em (wartime rations be damned). Though Em – Margaret – stresses that the situation is temporary, for her parents will surely return for her after the war, Sophie hopes to lives with Em forever. Her friends, her family, her life – all she has is in England. While Marianne daydreams about being reunited with her parents, to some extent Sophie dreads this development and the uncertainties it brings. When she receives a letter from her father Jacob after the end of the war, Sophie’s world threatens to unravel.
One thing Marianne and Sophie share is their quest for identity: in their native Germany, the girls are persecuted for their religion and ethnicity; in England and Wales, they are regarded with suspicion as possible traitors. (Indeed, Wiki reports that “In 1940, the British government ordered the internment of all male 16- to 70-year-old refugees from enemy countries — so-called friendly enemy aliens. Many of the kinder who had arrived in earlier years were now young men, and so they were also interned. Approximately 1,000 of these prior-kinder were interned in these makeshift internment camps, many on The Isle of Man.”) Too Jewish for Germany, too German for England; “born on the enemy side,” Marianne and Sophie don’t quite fit in anywhere.
Especially disturbing are the various accounts of foster homes, both for Jewish refugees living in England, and English evacuees staying in Wales. Foster homes for Kindertransport children needn’t be Jewish, or even speak the child’s native language. Nor did these homes receive all but the most cursory of inspections. As a result, it’s not difficult to imagine the isolation and alienation faced by many children; their vulnerability also made them easy targets for abuse. Even children from “good” English families faced hardships in Wales; Watts describes children being exploited for their labor, physically abused, and starved. Sexual abuse is hinted at but never described outright. (Upon their arrival in Wales, the youngest and prettiest girls are “signed out” the fastest – as though they are library books!) While you’d hope that those offering refuge to the most vulnerable among us would be motivated by charity and goodwill, this wasn’t always the case.
Since it’s written from the perspectives of an eleven- and a fourteen-year-old, Escape from Berlin is perhaps most suitable for the middle school crowd. That said, I’m 35 and enjoyed it immensely. This is one story that deserves to be told. Prior to reading this book, I’d never heard of Kindertransport – or at least not that I can recall. And that’s not okay. After all, what better way to engage children with history than by approaching them at their level?
“Sorry is such a little word,” Marianne tells Sophie. While Escape from Berlin aroused in me feelings of grief and sorrow, it also encouraged me to think about another aspect of WWII history that I’d never before considered. Only by remembering past mistakes can we hope never to repeat them. Remember – and be that person who refuses to look away, in the present as well as in the past and future.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2013/10/30/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.)
In the nine months before the outbreak of World War II, and thanks to the efforts of Jewish and Quaker delegates from Germany and Austria, some 10,000 children were ferried to safety in Great Britain. Most of the children rescued through Kindertransport were Jewish, living in Nazi Germany and neighboring Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and thus in danger of persecution; others were orphans in need of more permanent care during wartime. The children were transported to England, where they were placed in foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. (Among those rescued? None other than noted American sex therapist - and former Israeli scout and sniper - Dr. Ruth Westheimer. The Wiki entry on Kindertransport makes for interesting reading, and also provides a list of memoirs and historical novels written about this oft-forgot piece of WWII history.)
Author and playwright Irene N. Watts arrived in England via Kindertransport on December 10, 1938. She was just seven years old (the same age as protagonist Sophie) and traveled alone. While the events in Escape from Berlin are not autobiographical, the story is no doubt heavily influenced by the experiences of Watts and children like her. December 1, 2013, marks the 75th anniversary of the first Kindertransport; Good-Bye Marianne, Remember Me, and Finding Sophie are published together here for the first time in honor of the occasion.
Marianne Kohn has spent all of her eleven years in living Berlin with her mother and father. The growing air of anti-Semitism, while sometimes puzzling, is part of Marianne’s daily landscape: she’s used to signs barring admittance to “Jews and dogs,” and public park benches (or entire parks) which are reserved for Aryans only. In the days leading up to World War II, however, life grows increasingly perilous for her family. Marianne is expelled from school when the government passes a new law preventing Jews from attending public schools; similarly, the Nazis prohibit Jews from owning businesses, thus forcing her father to sell his beloved book shop. Even this doesn’t save him from scrutiny, however; the new owner finds some banned books in stock and promptly reports him to the authorities. (“Berlin was full of eyes,” Marianne recalls.) Though he’s ultimately released by the Gestapo, Vati goes into hiding. Faced with dwindling options, Mrs. Kohn decides to do the unthinkable: send Marianne away to England, where she’ll be safe from persecution. Thanks to her volunteer work at an orphanage, Mutti is able to secure a place for Marianne aboard the very first Kindertransport run. The adults wait with bated breath: will the Nazis honor their agreement and allow the train to leave undisturbed? What will become of their children? Is this goodbye their last?
Among those children sharing Marianne’s train car is seven-year-old Sophie Mandel. Hoisting her daughter into the car just seconds before departure, Sophie’s mother Charlotte beseeches Marianne to care for the little girl on their travels. Though their time together is short, the two forge a bond that outlasts the war - a connection that’s rekindled the moment they spot one another across the throngs crowding Piccadilly Circus on V-E Day. Marianne and Sophie rediscover one another at a pivotal moment in their young lives: now that the war is over, how will their existence – forever precarious, always shifting – change?
Escape from Berlin is a harrowing and heartbreaking look at war, genocide, and hatred through a child’s eyes. The girls offer unique perspectives on what it was like to live as Jews in Nazi Germany, refugees in wartime England, and evacuees in rural Wales.
Their experiences couldn’t be more different; whereas Sophie is lucky enough to be taken in by family friend Aunt Em, who loves her like her own, Marianne is shuffled from one lackluster foster home to another. Her initial sponsor, Mrs. Abercrombie Jones – “Aunt Vera” for short – was angling for a 14-year-old refugee so that she could keep the girl home from school and exploit her as an unpaid domestic servant. She only “settles” for Marianne to avoid embarrassment. Among other indignities, Mr. and Mrs. Jones laugh at her poor English, force Marianne to attend church, and downplay the gravity of the events unfolding back in Germany. (Admonishing Marianne for her efforts to find work – and thus temporary residence – for her parents, Vera scoffs, “They must wait their turn like other refugees. It is not a question of saving, but of good manners.”) When her school is evacuated to Wales, Marianne first stays at a Methodist home for unwed mothers; upon discovering that she’s Jewish (“Satan!”), the nun promptly throws her out – in the dark of night. Then it’s on to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts who, nearly delusional with grief, attempt to remake Marianne in the image of their deceased daughter. In additional to general smothering and forced intimacy, they rename the poor girl and make her eat pig flesh. Their false love quickly turns to disgust and anger when Marianne’s headmistress requests a transfer on her behalf.
In contrast, Sophie couldn’t be happier living with Aunt Em (wartime rations be damned). Though Em – Margaret – stresses that the situation is temporary, for her parents will surely return for her after the war, Sophie hopes to lives with Em forever. Her friends, her family, her life – all she has is in England. While Marianne daydreams about being reunited with her parents, to some extent Sophie dreads this development and the uncertainties it brings. When she receives a letter from her father Jacob after the end of the war, Sophie’s world threatens to unravel.
One thing Marianne and Sophie share is their quest for identity: in their native Germany, the girls are persecuted for their religion and ethnicity; in England and Wales, they are regarded with suspicion as possible traitors. (Indeed, Wiki reports that “In 1940, the British government ordered the internment of all male 16- to 70-year-old refugees from enemy countries — so-called friendly enemy aliens. Many of the kinder who had arrived in earlier years were now young men, and so they were also interned. Approximately 1,000 of these prior-kinder were interned in these makeshift internment camps, many on The Isle of Man.”) Too Jewish for Germany, too German for England; “born on the enemy side,” Marianne and Sophie don’t quite fit in anywhere.
Especially disturbing are the various accounts of foster homes, both for Jewish refugees living in England, and English evacuees staying in Wales. Foster homes for Kindertransport children needn’t be Jewish, or even speak the child’s native language. Nor did these homes receive all but the most cursory of inspections. As a result, it’s not difficult to imagine the isolation and alienation faced by many children; their vulnerability also made them easy targets for abuse. Even children from “good” English families faced hardships in Wales; Watts describes children being exploited for their labor, physically abused, and starved. Sexual abuse is hinted at but never described outright. (Upon their arrival in Wales, the youngest and prettiest girls are “signed out” the fastest – as though they are library books!) While you’d hope that those offering refuge to the most vulnerable among us would be motivated by charity and goodwill, this wasn’t always the case.
Since it’s written from the perspectives of an eleven- and a fourteen-year-old, Escape from Berlin is perhaps most suitable for the middle school crowd. That said, I’m 35 and enjoyed it immensely. This is one story that deserves to be told. Prior to reading this book, I’d never heard of Kindertransport – or at least not that I can recall. And that’s not okay. After all, what better way to engage children with history than by approaching them at their level?
“Sorry is such a little word,” Marianne tells Sophie. While Escape from Berlin aroused in me feelings of grief and sorrow, it also encouraged me to think about another aspect of WWII history that I’d never before considered. Only by remembering past mistakes can we hope never to repeat them. Remember – and be that person who refuses to look away, in the present as well as in the past and future.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2013/10/30/...
February 21, 2014
Escape from Berlin is an omnibus of three of novels, each of which had been previously published by Irene N. Watts, and have now been reprinted for the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport on December 1, 2013.
The Kindertransport was a short-lived program that rescued 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany and other occupied countries in the 9 months before the outbreak of WWII. Arranged by British Jews and Quakers, the Kindertransport began on December 1, 1938, spurred on by the devastation of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938 when Jewish stores, building and synagogues, as well as Jewish homes and schools were destroyed and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The first novel, Good-bye, Marianne, tells the story of Marianne Kohn, 11. It begins on a day shortly after Kristallnacht, when she arrives at school dreading a math test, only to find herself locked out of the building with no explanation. Her father, a book seller, has already disappeared and she and her mother don't know where he is. They later find out that he was picked up on Kristallnacht and had escaped on his way to a concentration camp and has been living in hiding ever since. Mrs. Kohn volunteers at an orphanage and one day tells Marianne that the orphans are being allowed to leave Germany and go to foster families in England.
Now that she isn't in school, Marianne becomes friends with Ernest, who is visiting the landlady of the Kohn's building with his mother, and who can't wait to be old enough to join the Hitler Youth. Eventually, the Kohn's are told that Jews can no longer live in their apartment and must move out.
As luck would have it, one of the children is unable to travel with this first Kindertransport and Mrs. Kohn secures the spot for Marianne, who really doesn't want to go, but agrees to for her mother's sake. Just as the train is leaving Berlin, Marianne is asked to look after a little girl. Sophie Mandel, 7, and Marianne bond during the trip, but lose track of each other once they are in England and sent to different families.
Remember Me is the second novel and it follows Marianne's life as an refugee in England. And life with the Abercrombie Jones' is anything but pleasant, despite their wealth. Their goal for Marianne, whom they now call Mary Anne, is to become a servant once she turns 14. She is given a cold room in the servants area and is expected to help out Gladys, their present servant, with various chores as part of her training. Mrs. Abercrombie Jones criticizes everything about Marianne, even her German accent. In addition, she has no regard for the fact that Marianne is Jewish and forces her to go to church and eat pork.
But at school, Marianne meets Bridget O'Malley and soon the girls are good friends and concocting a plan for bringing Marianne's parents to England, making flyers to slip under doors in the hope someone will need her mother's services. Soon though, Bridget will be going to another school and the girls dread being separated, until some luck comes Marianne's way and she is offered a scholarship to the same school.
But Marianne and Bridget are finally separated when they are evacuated because of war. Marianne is sent to Wales, where she is first placed in a Methodist home for unwed mothers. But she is cast out when they discover she is Jewish. Next, Marianne is sent to a family that has just lost a daughter and see Marianne as a replacement, even changing her name. When their delusion is broken, they, too, turn on her. Fortunately, Mr. Evans, in charge of billeting evacuees, likes Marianne very much, but he must find another place for her, which turns out to be a wonderful surprise for her.
Finding Sophie begins with Sophie Mandel, now 14 years old, filling in for the reader what had happened to her immediately after parting from Marianne in 1938, as well as recalling memories of her life in Germany before she left on the Kindertransport. Lucky Sophie went to live with her mother's old friend, Aunt Em and was loved and well taken care throughout the war. After 6 years living in England, Sophie has become fully assimilated to life there.
But now that the war is almost over, Sophie is afraid she will be sent back to live with her parents in Germany, whom she no longer thinks about very much, and realizes she doesn't even remember how to speak German. Now she must struggle with the guilt of not wanting to leave England and Aunt Em.
On VE day, May 8, 1945, as Sophie and her best friend Mandy wait in front of Buckingham Palace with thousands of other people waiting for the Royal family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill to come out, she notices a young nurse looking at her oddly and has a strange sensation she know the nurse.
In alternating chapters, the reader also catches up with Marianne, now a young women in nurses' training. She also thought she recognized someone on VE day at Buckingham Palace. As it turns out, Sophie is a Junior Red Cross volunteer at a hospital, and one Saturday, she is put on a different floor, where she and Marianne finally recognize each other. Sophie has some difficult times ahead of her now that the war is over, and Marianne and her still best friend Bridget provide the understanding moral support young Sophie needs now.
These three interwoven stories give the reader such a good picture of what the Kindertransport was like for these young refugees. Some were welcomed with open arms, others faced the same kind of racism and hate they had experienced in their homeland, still other, like Marianne, were seen a free labor. All three stories are realistically and poignantly written. Watts was part of the first Kindertransport at the same age as Sophie, and perhaps that is why she was able to capture so palpably the fear and reluctance Marianne and Sophie felt leaving their homes and parents for the unknown.
Each of the books in Escape from Berlin were previously published as stand alone novels, but I think reading them together gives a much clearer, deeper appreciation of what Marianne and Sophie went through. Finding Sophie is much more of a coming of age story than either Good-bye, Marianne and Remember Me because she is so young when she arrives in England and at just the right age of finding out who she really is when the war ends.
Escape from Berlin is a book that will appeal to anyone who like good historical fiction and I highly recommend it.
This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was an E-ARC received from NetGalley
This review was originally posted on The Children's War
The Kindertransport was a short-lived program that rescued 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi Germany and other occupied countries in the 9 months before the outbreak of WWII. Arranged by British Jews and Quakers, the Kindertransport began on December 1, 1938, spurred on by the devastation of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938 when Jewish stores, building and synagogues, as well as Jewish homes and schools were destroyed and 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The first novel, Good-bye, Marianne, tells the story of Marianne Kohn, 11. It begins on a day shortly after Kristallnacht, when she arrives at school dreading a math test, only to find herself locked out of the building with no explanation. Her father, a book seller, has already disappeared and she and her mother don't know where he is. They later find out that he was picked up on Kristallnacht and had escaped on his way to a concentration camp and has been living in hiding ever since. Mrs. Kohn volunteers at an orphanage and one day tells Marianne that the orphans are being allowed to leave Germany and go to foster families in England.
Now that she isn't in school, Marianne becomes friends with Ernest, who is visiting the landlady of the Kohn's building with his mother, and who can't wait to be old enough to join the Hitler Youth. Eventually, the Kohn's are told that Jews can no longer live in their apartment and must move out.
As luck would have it, one of the children is unable to travel with this first Kindertransport and Mrs. Kohn secures the spot for Marianne, who really doesn't want to go, but agrees to for her mother's sake. Just as the train is leaving Berlin, Marianne is asked to look after a little girl. Sophie Mandel, 7, and Marianne bond during the trip, but lose track of each other once they are in England and sent to different families.
Remember Me is the second novel and it follows Marianne's life as an refugee in England. And life with the Abercrombie Jones' is anything but pleasant, despite their wealth. Their goal for Marianne, whom they now call Mary Anne, is to become a servant once she turns 14. She is given a cold room in the servants area and is expected to help out Gladys, their present servant, with various chores as part of her training. Mrs. Abercrombie Jones criticizes everything about Marianne, even her German accent. In addition, she has no regard for the fact that Marianne is Jewish and forces her to go to church and eat pork.
But at school, Marianne meets Bridget O'Malley and soon the girls are good friends and concocting a plan for bringing Marianne's parents to England, making flyers to slip under doors in the hope someone will need her mother's services. Soon though, Bridget will be going to another school and the girls dread being separated, until some luck comes Marianne's way and she is offered a scholarship to the same school.
But Marianne and Bridget are finally separated when they are evacuated because of war. Marianne is sent to Wales, where she is first placed in a Methodist home for unwed mothers. But she is cast out when they discover she is Jewish. Next, Marianne is sent to a family that has just lost a daughter and see Marianne as a replacement, even changing her name. When their delusion is broken, they, too, turn on her. Fortunately, Mr. Evans, in charge of billeting evacuees, likes Marianne very much, but he must find another place for her, which turns out to be a wonderful surprise for her.
Finding Sophie begins with Sophie Mandel, now 14 years old, filling in for the reader what had happened to her immediately after parting from Marianne in 1938, as well as recalling memories of her life in Germany before she left on the Kindertransport. Lucky Sophie went to live with her mother's old friend, Aunt Em and was loved and well taken care throughout the war. After 6 years living in England, Sophie has become fully assimilated to life there.
But now that the war is almost over, Sophie is afraid she will be sent back to live with her parents in Germany, whom she no longer thinks about very much, and realizes she doesn't even remember how to speak German. Now she must struggle with the guilt of not wanting to leave England and Aunt Em.
On VE day, May 8, 1945, as Sophie and her best friend Mandy wait in front of Buckingham Palace with thousands of other people waiting for the Royal family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill to come out, she notices a young nurse looking at her oddly and has a strange sensation she know the nurse.
In alternating chapters, the reader also catches up with Marianne, now a young women in nurses' training. She also thought she recognized someone on VE day at Buckingham Palace. As it turns out, Sophie is a Junior Red Cross volunteer at a hospital, and one Saturday, she is put on a different floor, where she and Marianne finally recognize each other. Sophie has some difficult times ahead of her now that the war is over, and Marianne and her still best friend Bridget provide the understanding moral support young Sophie needs now.
These three interwoven stories give the reader such a good picture of what the Kindertransport was like for these young refugees. Some were welcomed with open arms, others faced the same kind of racism and hate they had experienced in their homeland, still other, like Marianne, were seen a free labor. All three stories are realistically and poignantly written. Watts was part of the first Kindertransport at the same age as Sophie, and perhaps that is why she was able to capture so palpably the fear and reluctance Marianne and Sophie felt leaving their homes and parents for the unknown.
Each of the books in Escape from Berlin were previously published as stand alone novels, but I think reading them together gives a much clearer, deeper appreciation of what Marianne and Sophie went through. Finding Sophie is much more of a coming of age story than either Good-bye, Marianne and Remember Me because she is so young when she arrives in England and at just the right age of finding out who she really is when the war ends.
Escape from Berlin is a book that will appeal to anyone who like good historical fiction and I highly recommend it.
This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was an E-ARC received from NetGalley
This review was originally posted on The Children's War
August 9, 2023
Escape from Berlin tells the story of two little girls who were in the first train in the Kindertransport saving Jewish children from Nazi terror and sent to England where ordinary families took them in - some out of kindness, others for less altruistic motives.
Marianne Kohn, one of the lucky children, leaves behind the love and comfort of her mother, who believes with all her heart that she is doing what is best by sending her only daughter away. After all, Marianne's father is already gone, hiding from the Nazi's, working for the resistence. Their landlady has just informed them that they must leave, immediately, for Jews would no longer be welcome in her building. Needless to say, missing her parents, longing for her parents and her home, is part of her life, her heart; it is behind every breath she takes. The people who took her in are cold, distant, and as unlovong as could be. But things are soon to become even worse for this young girl.
Sophie is several years younger than Marianne. She is taken in by a close friend of her mother's. This loving woman, Aunt Em, becomes a very supportive, caring mother figure for the young girl, a woman who takes good care of the young girl and gives her a happy life.In time, Sophie even stops thinking about her parents in Germany. After all, she was so very young when she left home.
Marianne and Sophie meet on the trin on that very first day. They form a bond that is to last a lifetime. Will they meet agin? Will circumstance cause their paths to cross again? And will they ever return to the families who birthed them, the homeland that so unceremoniously tossed them out?
Escape from Berlin is a deeply engaging and moving story that sheds a unique light on a particularly difficlt period in history. I liked it very much.
Marianne Kohn, one of the lucky children, leaves behind the love and comfort of her mother, who believes with all her heart that she is doing what is best by sending her only daughter away. After all, Marianne's father is already gone, hiding from the Nazi's, working for the resistence. Their landlady has just informed them that they must leave, immediately, for Jews would no longer be welcome in her building. Needless to say, missing her parents, longing for her parents and her home, is part of her life, her heart; it is behind every breath she takes. The people who took her in are cold, distant, and as unlovong as could be. But things are soon to become even worse for this young girl.
Sophie is several years younger than Marianne. She is taken in by a close friend of her mother's. This loving woman, Aunt Em, becomes a very supportive, caring mother figure for the young girl, a woman who takes good care of the young girl and gives her a happy life.In time, Sophie even stops thinking about her parents in Germany. After all, she was so very young when she left home.
Marianne and Sophie meet on the trin on that very first day. They form a bond that is to last a lifetime. Will they meet agin? Will circumstance cause their paths to cross again? And will they ever return to the families who birthed them, the homeland that so unceremoniously tossed them out?
Escape from Berlin is a deeply engaging and moving story that sheds a unique light on a particularly difficlt period in history. I liked it very much.
October 25, 2017
Marianne is a small girl at only 11 years old when she gets kicked out of school because she is a Jew. Marianne becomes banned from a lot of places. Her parents wanted her to have a better life so they sent her on the famous train known as the kindertransport. The was no ordinary train. This was the first ever kindertransport. This train saved over 10 million children. This train transported kids from Berlin to England for a better life during 1938 shortly before the second world war. This exciting book change his perspective from Marianne a 11 year old girl to Sophie Mandel a seven year old girl. On the train these girls become good friends, but are separated to different foster families. As they desperately search for each other and their parents throughout England the book takes exciting twists and turns.
Irene N. Watts made this book dramatic and exciting for the reader. When both characters arrive in England they both struggle to fit in and face a lot of conflicts and problems. Even though both characters go through a hard time At the end of story they are reuniting with each other and their parents. This book really shows How hard it is to start a new life in the new country, with new people, and new family.
Irene N. Watts made this book dramatic and exciting for the reader. When both characters arrive in England they both struggle to fit in and face a lot of conflicts and problems. Even though both characters go through a hard time At the end of story they are reuniting with each other and their parents. This book really shows How hard it is to start a new life in the new country, with new people, and new family.
October 27, 2018
4.5 ⭐️
November 10, 2020
This is a good book for young readers.If we make our young people aware that life happens and entitlement isn't a given then we give them lessons that will help when life is beyond their control
December 25, 2013
Source: (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.)
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. In the past we have taught about the Kindertransport in my class. However, I liked this much more than the book the county had picked for us. It gave us a realistic look into how children were actually treated. Those of us who have studied and taught about the life of a Jew during the times of the Nazis know that they had a lot of persecution to deal with. Many parents sent their young children off to England for safe keeping, never knowing if they would be seen again. They believed that the people taking in their children would treat them like they would their own. This was not always true. Many of them as you learn from the stories in this book wanted them for free labor, others saw them as traitors or demons. I felt for Marianne the main character of the first two stories. She is bounced around form one home to another. Mistreated, thrown out or forced to live in opposition to her religious upbringing. Sophia, the young girl Marianne meets on the train is treated much better. Her “Aunt Em” is a friend of the family and treats her as if she is a relative. There is very little written about this time and it is refreshing to find a book that does such a wonderful job of telling it, even though the story is historical fiction. This will be a great addition to my bookshelves at school.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. In the past we have taught about the Kindertransport in my class. However, I liked this much more than the book the county had picked for us. It gave us a realistic look into how children were actually treated. Those of us who have studied and taught about the life of a Jew during the times of the Nazis know that they had a lot of persecution to deal with. Many parents sent their young children off to England for safe keeping, never knowing if they would be seen again. They believed that the people taking in their children would treat them like they would their own. This was not always true. Many of them as you learn from the stories in this book wanted them for free labor, others saw them as traitors or demons. I felt for Marianne the main character of the first two stories. She is bounced around form one home to another. Mistreated, thrown out or forced to live in opposition to her religious upbringing. Sophia, the young girl Marianne meets on the train is treated much better. Her “Aunt Em” is a friend of the family and treats her as if she is a relative. There is very little written about this time and it is refreshing to find a book that does such a wonderful job of telling it, even though the story is historical fiction. This will be a great addition to my bookshelves at school.
April 13, 2014
This is an omnibus edition of Watts' three titles, Goodbye Marianne, Remember Me, and Finding Sophie, all of which have won multiple awards. Watts herself gives a tiny crumb of personal information in her foreword, letting us know that she herself was a Kindertransport child. I wish she had included more background about the phenomenon of Kindertransport, but readers will have to look elsewhere for this. Marianne gets a lucky place on the train, after experiencing prejudice and grave fear in Berlin, and she must leave her beloved mother behind. Sophie is a little seven-year-old whose mother gives her into Marianne's care at the last minute, as the Kindertransport train is pulling away. The two girls are separated once they arrive in London and are taken to live with their respective sponsors. The final story in the omnibus includes their reunion as 18 and 14 year olds. Watts' writing is sometimes awkward, but she conveys powerfully the children's sense of loss, their terror and anxiety at being alone in England and unsure if they will ever see their parents again. She also does a beautifully brutal job of describing the nastiness and intolerance that many of the children experienced in Britain (Marianne's sponsors are appalling, but believable). For grades 5 and up.
October 14, 2013
This was definitely a middle grade book, although in NetGalley it was listed as YA. I had a problem with that at the beginning, but the further I got into the stories of the children involved in Kindertransport, the less I cared what level of reading it was - I just wanted to know the outcome!!
As someone who loves WWII era stories, to be able to read three short novels about Kindertransport - which I had never heard of until I requested this galley - that was utterly fascinating. In case you don't know, Kindertransport was the time in WWII era Germany when a lot of Jewish children were sent by train to England. They went with minimal adults - just enough to watch over them, and the adults were not allowed to stay in England. Parts of the stories were heartbreaking - for example, when Marianne had to leave her mother and didn't know if she would ever see her again.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Kindertransport or who is looking for a good middle grade read for a child who is interested in WWII.
Many thanks to Tundra Books, via NetGalley, for an opportunity to read and review this novel.
As someone who loves WWII era stories, to be able to read three short novels about Kindertransport - which I had never heard of until I requested this galley - that was utterly fascinating. In case you don't know, Kindertransport was the time in WWII era Germany when a lot of Jewish children were sent by train to England. They went with minimal adults - just enough to watch over them, and the adults were not allowed to stay in England. Parts of the stories were heartbreaking - for example, when Marianne had to leave her mother and didn't know if she would ever see her again.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Kindertransport or who is looking for a good middle grade read for a child who is interested in WWII.
Many thanks to Tundra Books, via NetGalley, for an opportunity to read and review this novel.
October 30, 2013
I've only just discovered Irene N. Watts in the past few years, but I've quickly become a fan. This book is a collection of three stories involving children from the first wave of the Kindertransport. The first two focus on Marianne, while the third revolves around Sophie (though Marianne plays a supporting role). The first book, Good-bye Marianne, is an almost perfect slice of fiction, creating a sympathetic character stuck in horrible circumstances and letting the reader navigate the choices Marianne and her family must make to survive. Remember Me continues Marianne's story in England and Wales, and while it keeps up the dramatic tension and deep characterizations, the ending in particular is choppy and a bit hurried. Finding Sophie suffers somewhat from a similarly rushed ending, but it's first person narration allows us an invaluable glimpse into Sophie's mind as she lives through the tumultuous end of the war and its aftermath.
Read all together, Escape from Berlin is an ultimately uplifting story of how people, children especially can survive and even thrive in the worst of situations.
Read all together, Escape from Berlin is an ultimately uplifting story of how people, children especially can survive and even thrive in the worst of situations.
September 20, 2013
Received a free copy from NetGalley.
I really wanted to like this book. The book summary caught my interest: historical fiction, kindertransport, WW II, holocaust, and families. I just couldn't get into the book. So many times, I put it down saying I wasn't going to finish it. I would then think maybe I'm not giving the book enough credit and maybe if I read just a little more it will start getting good. Never happened for me. The book was flat and just plain bleh. The book was wordy and choppy. No action, no suspense, nothing to spur me on to want to read it.
The first part of the book abruptly ends only to start with another unexpected story. The transition between the two parts of the book could have been done better to make it feel more cohesive. So many times, the book could have been dynamic, but then feel short of that expectation. The characters were not memorable and didn't stand out. The book was too wordy and choppy.
I really wanted to like this book. The book summary caught my interest: historical fiction, kindertransport, WW II, holocaust, and families. I just couldn't get into the book. So many times, I put it down saying I wasn't going to finish it. I would then think maybe I'm not giving the book enough credit and maybe if I read just a little more it will start getting good. Never happened for me. The book was flat and just plain bleh. The book was wordy and choppy. No action, no suspense, nothing to spur me on to want to read it.
The first part of the book abruptly ends only to start with another unexpected story. The transition between the two parts of the book could have been done better to make it feel more cohesive. So many times, the book could have been dynamic, but then feel short of that expectation. The characters were not memorable and didn't stand out. The book was too wordy and choppy.
August 8, 2014
My eyes were wet at least 4 times while I read through the book. This book is a wonderful and terrible and wonderful read. The lives of so many were changed because of the Kindertransport, and the events leading up to the Second World War. This book showed the lives of two German - Jewish girls who had to survive during this time. I have a lot of feelings pertaining to this book, but all I want to say is to read it.
August 22, 2014
Definitely not what I expected! I though it would be dry, long, and hard to get through, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I was captivated from the first few pages and loved the length, depth and the interlocking way this was put together. Do not be discouraged by the topic, era, or length! It is not gruesome, though some parts are sad. It will speed by and be over sooner than you might expect.
Want to read
July 29, 2013ARC supplied by publisher via NetGalley
July 15, 2016
Good story, I've never heard of the kinder transport before. Transitions weren't very smooth in the story at times though.
August 1, 2016
I really liked this book, but once Marianne was reunited with her mother, the book felt rushed. Sophie's character didn't seem as developed as a result.
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