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Book Club Spotlight – When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

cover for When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. A young girl, shown from the chest down stands at a train track with a suitcase behind her. Her pink overcoat is the only color against the sepia background.

January 27th, 2025, is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In commemoration, today’s Book Club Spotlight takes a look at the life of a young Jewish girl during Hitler’s rise to power. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by children’s book author Judith Kerr, has been lauded as an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and was awarded the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Youth Literature Award). Kerr’s book, taught in classrooms across Europe, is a semi-autobiographical novel about her own childhood as a Jewish refugee. Just like Anna, Kerr’s father was a theatre critic and political essayist in Berlin, who, under fear of Hitler’s regime, fled with his family to Switzerland. Later, his works were banned and burned by the Nazis.  

Nine-year-old Anna supposes she is Jewish, though her family isn’t very religious. With an election soon, Anna knows her ancestry is important, but she is more focused on her friends and school. When it looks like a man named Adolf Hitler is going to become Chancellor of Germany, Anna’s father, a prominent cultural critic, flees to Switzerland as a wanted man. Soon, Anna finds herself living in Switzerland with her family as refugees! Together, they move all over Europe to avoid the Nazis, searching for a permanent home. Each country brings new people, customs, and languages that Anna must learn and follow. While she enjoys the adventure of being a refugee, the stress of moving and the looming threat of the Nazis is hard for her to ignore.

The first in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, follows a young, sheltered girl as she escapes the Nazi regime- having to leave friends, family, and her comfortable life behind. Our main character, Anna, is very removed from the violence happening in Germany, but Judith Kerr artfully includes clues, events, and characters that will key readers into the broader context. Kerr, who based the story on her childhood, is only a few years older than Anne Frank, reminding us that stories of the young and vulnerable in times of hardship persist as they show the human cost behind war and fascism. Appropriate for ages 9 and up, classrooms and Book Club Groups can learn about the rise of the Nazi party and how changes in political climates can affect everyone, especially children.

If you’re interested in requesting When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 10 copies. (A librarian must request items)

Kerr, Judith. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. Puffin Books. 1971

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