Friedrich pronounced "free-drick" (in orig. German Damals war es Friedrich) (1961) is a novel about two boys and their families, one family who were Jewish, and another who is of Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 heritage. They both live and grow together during Hitler's rise to power and reign. It is by the author Hans Peter Richter

Hans Peter Richter

Hans Peter Richter was a German author. Born in Cologne, Germany, went to school in Germany, went to the university of Hannover,and later graduated in 1968. He also spent some of his life in the German army. Richter wrote many books for children and young adults...

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Plot Overview

Friedrich is a young Jewish boy growing up in an apartment house in Germany. Though the story is told by his Christian friend, Friedrich is the protagonist. His friend tells of the persecution of the Jews through Friedrich's eyes. Friedrich is forced to switch to a Jewish school, and is thrown out of swimming pools and movie theaters. An angry mob went to Friedrich's house and one of them killed his mother, and his father gets fired and has an emotional breakdown. (See Pogrom

Pogrom

A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

). Friedrich then finds a girlfriend, Helga, and really likes her. Soon he cannot see her anymore or she would be sent to a concentration camp. Friedrich and his father are forced to do whatever they can to make money to survive. Then Friedrich helps his father hide a rabbi in their house, but soon Friedrich's father and the rabbi get arrested, and Herr Schneider is deported. Then an air raid begins. Friedrich begs to come in the air raid shelter, but is kicked out by the landlord/air-raid warden, Herr Resch. After the raid, Friedrich's friend, his family, Herr Resch and his wife, return to the house. There they find the garden-gnome Polycarp who 'survived' the raid with only the tip of his hat broken by shrapnel. Herr Resch remarks that it is fixable. After checking out the area surrounding the house, the group notices Friedrich on the stoop. At first they think that he is passed out, but when the landlord decides to get rid of him by kicking him they realize that Friedrich was killed by shrapnel. The landlord then remarks that Friedrich has died a better death than was expected.

Setting the Scene (1925)

The book begins with the introduction of a garden gnome named Polycarp. The narrator talks about how he and Friedrich first met - their parents lived in the same apartment building. This apartment building is owned by a man named Herr Johann Resch. At first, the Schneiders and the protagonist's family are mere acquaintances. Through the birth of the narrator and Friedrich, who was born a week later, they become better friends. The Schneiders' religious views are not revealed in this chapter, though it is assumed they are Christian or Catholic because of how well-off they are. The narrator's family has an unemployed German father, and the birth of the narrator puts a financial strain on his family. However, the narrator is still well-received and feels welcomed in his home.

Potato Pancakes (1929)

In this chapter, Friedrich and the narrator are both four years old. Because Friedrich's mother, Frau Schneider, needs to attend to business at City Hall, Friedrich stays over at the narrator's family for the day. At first, the narrator (whose sex and name remain ambiguous) is reluctant to share his toys with Friedrich. In a four-year-old fashion, he blocks the way to his room by spreading his legs and not trusting Friedrich. However, Friedrich doesn't seem to mind. Instead, he took out a cuckoo whistle and began playing with it. By blowing into it, Friedrich can make a noise like a bird. Intrigued, the narrator is given the cuckoo whistle and shares his toys with Friedrich. Once the narrator is tired of the cuckoo whistle, he plays with Friedrich for a little while then the two go to the narrator's mother, hungry. The narrator's mother makes potato pancakes for them, but when Friedrich and the narrator try to help, the pancakes flop onto the floor. Instead of throwing them away, Friedrich and the narrator eat from the ground. Because of the large mess they made, the narrator's mother allows them to take a bath with one another, an activity both enjoy very much. This became the foundation of their friendship.

Snow (1929)

With the introduction of winter, snow was everywhere. The book describes the snow being so deep only the "tip of Polycarp's hat showed." Of course, being a hyperactive four-year-old, the narrator wanted to play in the snow. However, his mother didn't allow him to - after all, she had a job to tend to. This job was never elaborated on greatly. The narrator watched as Friedrich went out and began playing around in the snow. At this, the narrator comments to his mother that Friedrich was playing in the snow, at which the mother replied that she was nearly done. Soon enough, Friedrich's mother came out and surprised Friedrich by throwing snow at him. The two then began sliding on ice that accumulated on the road. This made the narrator even more anxious to join in. When the Schneiders began building a snowman, the narrator was very distressed. He watched as the snowman was being made, already giving up hope that he would be able to join them. The mother replies that she is almost done with her work. Frau Schneider, Friedrich's mother, goes back into the house to get some materials for the snowman, apparently unsatisfied with how it turned out. Friedrich then romps around in Herr Johann Resch's flowerbed, causing Herr Resch to poke his head out of the window. Following this motion, the landlord yelled that Friedrich was a "dirty Jewboy".

Grandfather (1930)

The chapter begins with the narrator's grandfather's visit. The narrator's mother was noted to have tidied up every corner, and to have scrubbed the narrator's hands so much that they turned red. When their grandfather came, the visit was quiet. He inspected every corner, and stared at the narrator's reddened hands. Then they sat down at the kitchen table and began to talk. The text implies that this conversation was very familiar in the household; apparently, the grandfather had gone over it before with the narrator's father, who is unemployed. The grandfather tries to unsuccessfully convince the narrator's father to join the workforce on the railroad because it paid well. The narrator's father took the grandfather's words in silence, not daring to oppose him, because the grandfather was their sole financial backer. Then a thump sounded on the landing above them. The grandfather was displeased with this, and asked them who it was. The narrator's father explained that it was Friedrich's family, which was Jewish. The grandfather expressed his dislike for Jews, igniting anger in the narrator's father, who defended them.

Awards

The novel was the subject of a 1972 Batchelder Award for a publisher of an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language in the United States. The award is unusual in that it is awarded to a publisher, yet specifies a single work. It seeks to recognize translations of children's books into the English language, with the intention of encouraging American publishers to translate high quality foreign language children's books and 'promote communication between the people of the world' and "to eliminate barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages."