Fritz and Kurt

Product Information

In 1938, the Nazis come to Vienna. They hate anyone who is different, especially Jewish people. Fritz and Kurt's family are Jewish, and that puts them in terrible danger. Fritz, along with his father, is taken to a Nazi prison camp, a terrible place, full of fear.

Fritz and Kurt - Penguin Books UK

It is an incredibly moving book, with many harrowing details and scenes. Whilst not glossing over them, it doesn’t go into too much detail. It does highlight the many kindnesses that were shown to Fritz and Gustav during their time in various concentration camps, and this is a great positive to take from reading it. The author has painstakingly researched the family’s history and got to talk to Kurt about his story and life in America. The story of the two Kleinmann brothers was first told in the best-selling The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz, but this edition has been especially written for younger readers more like the age of the boys themselves and also contains some additional material discovered since the first publication. This new version of the story will be completely rewritten for middle-grade readers aged 9+ and willeducate and inspire children with the powerful real-life account of two brothers’ experiences during theHolocaust.

By Author / Illustrator

My conversation with Jeremy Dronfield was about an hour in total, so some parts I have had to leave out. It was, however, wonderful to hear him speak so passionately and sincerely. You have to keep reminding yourself that the characters in this book are real people. The conversations are real. What happened is real. But at the same time, also unthinkable. Thanks to Jeremy, the Kleinmann’s story is one which will stay with me. Fritz and Kurt deserves to be a fixture in classrooms, and I hope it is. It will stay with readers for years. In 1946 the near unthinkable happened when Kurt was told, via telegram, that his brother and father were alive. By then an American soldier, he was able to visit them in Vienna when he was stationed in Europe. Still, it wasn't as smooth a reunion he might have hoped for. He had lost most of his German, while his family had little English. Since the events of the book really did happen to a child, it’s right that children should be able to read about them — though nine is too young. This book had a lot of depth to it and was really interesting along with having loads of bits and pieces that I loved. One thing I found to be unique and quite nice about this book is the writing style and how it was written - the writing was telling the brothers story in real time jumping between the two but it also occasionally had hints as too what happened to them at the end of the war say things like ‘but Fritz didn’t know that yet’, and similar which isn’t something I see often in books and really liked. It also tied in well with the point that the author was telling a true story and that this was something that had happened and had a specific ending.

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

I spent many hours interviewing Kurt, and we became friends. He told me all about their family life in Vienna in the days ‘before Hitler came’ and about his special childhood bond with Fritz. He also told me about his own story of life in Vienna under the Nazis, and how he escaped to America in 1941, all alone, aged only eleven. Fritz and Kurt lived in Vienna and as Jews they were in terrible danger when the Nazis came. Fritz, the older brother, and his father do indeed get taken to Buchenwald as the concentration camp is newly developed and we are left in no doubt about the conditions they suffered both there and in subsequent camps. The careful attention to detail certainly gives a real insight into the realities of how the Holocaust progressed. Under Nazi rule, though, Fritz and his father are imprisoned, while Kurt eventually finds refuge with a family in America. Most chapters show Fritz and his father coping with daily life in Buchenwald (and towards the end, Auschwitz) but we do get glimpses of Kurt’s new life in America, where his experiences at youth camp form a striking contrast to the camp his brother is enduring.

Here is my first 'must buy, must read' title for 2023! There are so many books about the Holocaust but for me, Fritz and Kurt was instantly compelling. It's based on the true story of the Kleinmanns, a working class Jewish family from Vienna, that was told for adults as 'The Boy Who Followed his Father into Auschwitz'.