Pennies for Hitler

PENNIES FOR HITLER, which can be regarded as a companion novel to HITLER’S DAUGHTER, reveals what the World War II period might have been like from a different perspective. Here we meet Georg, who loses his family and must forget his past and who he is in order to survive. It’s 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cakes with cream, loving parents, and a housekeeper who sings about red roses. It’s also a time when his teacher conducts experiments in the classroom with a tape measure, checking to see which of the children have the most ‘Aryan’ shaped head. Georg thinks the Fuhrer is a great leader, that Jews aren’t really the same as him, and that ‘Englanders’ are weak and inferior. Georg’s life changes dramatically after a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, with tragic consequences for Georg’s father when he goes to help some students being thrown from a window. Hustled out of the country in a perilous escape, Georg becomes George when he goes to London to stay with his father’s sister Miriam and wonders when he will hear from his mother, who has disappeared, hoping against hope that he will see her. As birthdays and Christmases go by, London is engulfed by the bombardment and rationing of the Blitz. Georg watches as other children are evacuated to the country in Operation Pied Piper. But when his turn comes to leave, he finds his journey will be much longer — on a boat to Australia. Once there, Georg learns to enjoy life in the small country town of Bellagong, helped by the kindly Peaslakes, whose own son Alan is fighting in the Pacific and the African desert. Georg also makes friends with a girl called Mud, who will do anything to fight for her country. In the face of such kindness and patriotism, how can Georg tell them that he is living a lie? Only when real tragedy strikes and Georg is involved in a miraculous rescue, can he summon up the courage to change his life forever. Jackie French has become a master at weaving historical fact into breathtaking, page-turning fiction that appeals to readers of all ages. In PENNIES FOR HITLER she delivers another moving, fascinating and thought-provoking novel that will likely become a modern classic.