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The school that escaped the Nazis : the true story of the schoolteacher who defied Hitler / Deborah Cadbury.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Public Affairs, 2022Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First US editionDescription: 440 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781541751194
  • 1541751191
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Prologue -- Introduction -- Part One 1933-September 1939. 'I could no longer raise children in honesty and freedom' -- '[Bunce Court] school falls short of the usual requirements' -- 'No match for the Raging Mob' -- 'The Gestapo arrived early one morning' -- 'I did not trust a soul' -- 'The children were used to having everything taken away...' -- 'The only important thing was to save life' -- Part Two September 1939-July 1948. 'How stupid to cry when the next minute I would be dead...' -- 'We were shocked when they came for the cook...' -- 'Everyone knew not to get on the death cars' -- 'It wasn't enough just to know...' -- 'What kind of animal had I become?' -- 'This was something the children should not see' -- 'The school turned me back into a human being' -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Further notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.
Summary: In 1933, as Hitler came to power, schoolteacher Anna Essinger hatched a daring and courageous plan: to smuggle her entire school out of Nazi Germany. Anna had read Mein Kampf and knew the terrible danger that Hitler's hate-fueled ideologies posed to her pupils. She knew that to protect them she had to get her pupils to the safety of England. But the safe haven that Anna struggled to create in a rundown manor house in Kent would test her to the limit. As the news from Europe continued to darken, Anna rescued successive waves of fleeing children and, when war broke out, she and her pupils faced a second exodus. One by one countries fell to the Nazis and before long unspeakable rumors began to circulate. Red Cross messages stopped and parents in occupied Europe vanished. In time, Anna would take in orphans who had given up all hope; the survivors of unimaginable horrors. Anna's school offered these scarred children the love and security they needed to rebuild their lives, showing them that, despite everything, there was still a world worth fighting for.Featuring moving first-hand testimony, and drawn from letters, diaries and present-day interviews, The School That Escaped the Nazis is a dramatic human tale that offers a unique child's-eye perspective on Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. It is also the story of one woman's refusal to allow her beliefs in a better, more equitable world to be overtaken by the evil that surrounded her.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 940.5318 C121 Available 33111011306939
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Named one of Book Riot's BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF 2022



The extraordinary true story of a courageous school principal who saw the dangers of Nazi Germany and took drastic steps to save those in harm's way.



In 1933, the same year Hitler came to power, schoolteacher Anna Essinger saved her small, progressive school from Nazi Germany. Anna had read Mein Kampf and knew the terrible danger that Hitler's hate-fueled ideologies posed to her pupils, so she hatched a courageous and daring plan: to smuggle her school to the safety of England.



As the school she established in Kent, England, flourished despite the many challenges it faced, the news from her home country continued to darken. Anna watched as Europe slid toward war, with devastating consequences for the Jewish children left behind. In time, Anna would take in orphans who had given up all hope: the survivors of unimaginable horrors. Anna's school offered these scarred children the love and security they needed to rebuild their lives.



Featuring moving firsthand testimony from surviving pupils, and drawing from letters, diaries, and present-day interviews, The School that Escaped the Nazis is a dramatic human tale that offers a unique perspective on Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. It is also the story of one woman's refusal to allow her belief in a better world to be overtaken by hatred and violence.

"Originally published in Great Britain in 2022 by Two Roads."--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-421) and index.

Prologue -- Introduction -- Part One 1933-September 1939. 'I could no longer raise children in honesty and freedom' -- '[Bunce Court] school falls short of the usual requirements' -- 'No match for the Raging Mob' -- 'The Gestapo arrived early one morning' -- 'I did not trust a soul' -- 'The children were used to having everything taken away...' -- 'The only important thing was to save life' -- Part Two September 1939-July 1948. 'How stupid to cry when the next minute I would be dead...' -- 'We were shocked when they came for the cook...' -- 'Everyone knew not to get on the death cars' -- 'It wasn't enough just to know...' -- 'What kind of animal had I become?' -- 'This was something the children should not see' -- 'The school turned me back into a human being' -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Further notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index.

In 1933, as Hitler came to power, schoolteacher Anna Essinger hatched a daring and courageous plan: to smuggle her entire school out of Nazi Germany. Anna had read Mein Kampf and knew the terrible danger that Hitler's hate-fueled ideologies posed to her pupils. She knew that to protect them she had to get her pupils to the safety of England. But the safe haven that Anna struggled to create in a rundown manor house in Kent would test her to the limit. As the news from Europe continued to darken, Anna rescued successive waves of fleeing children and, when war broke out, she and her pupils faced a second exodus. One by one countries fell to the Nazis and before long unspeakable rumors began to circulate. Red Cross messages stopped and parents in occupied Europe vanished. In time, Anna would take in orphans who had given up all hope; the survivors of unimaginable horrors. Anna's school offered these scarred children the love and security they needed to rebuild their lives, showing them that, despite everything, there was still a world worth fighting for.Featuring moving first-hand testimony, and drawn from letters, diaries and present-day interviews, The School That Escaped the Nazis is a dramatic human tale that offers a unique child's-eye perspective on Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. It is also the story of one woman's refusal to allow her beliefs in a better, more equitable world to be overtaken by the evil that surrounded her.

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