The friends – three girls and a boy named Leon – live in Bochum. The year is 1938. Only one of the four children, Hildegard, is of value to the “Volksgemeinschaft” in the eyes of the Nazis. The rest are Jews. Andrea Behnke tells what it was like to experience 1938 as a Jewish child in Bochum. Your book is written for everyone ten years old and older.
The story is about three schoolmates who seal their friendship by putting on bracelets that one of them, Liselotte, sewed from scraps of fabric and provided with buttons (hence the title: “Die Verknöpften”). Liselotte’s parents’ fabric shop is in dire straits. The slogan “Do not buy from Jews!” has got around. And as quickly as the delicate ribbons wear out, the Nazi policy makes friendship impossible: Hildegard’s mother forbids her daughter to meet her Jewish friends. Liselotte’s growing love of children for Leon is suddenly strangled because he and his parents emigrate to America. The horror comes in Liselotte’s home in the form of men who, while roaring loudly, destroy the furnishings of the shop. The synagogue is set on fire and no firefighter helps. Since the pogrom night of November 9th, the father is no longer himself: “Papa is somewhere in himself.” The mother, who takes care of the food and everything else, “is like a tin figure” that someone “raised”.
Andrea Behnke tells all of this with a rich, colorful vocabulary. She also inserts Yiddish words, Yiddish songs, and typical Jewish food is also on the agenda. Because Behnke tells from little Liselotte’s point of view, she succeeds without being instructive. The mother affectionately calls her daughter “majn kneijdl”: “my dumpling”. The dumpling enjoys singing. When her young friend disappeared to America, a Yiddish love song never leaves her mind: “Tumbalalaika”. In it, a boy asks a girl what could grow without rain.
The whole story has a core of truth. There was a school in Bochum and the teacher who taught English and Hebrew so that fictional characters like Leon could gain a foothold in America or Palestine. The teacher’s name was Else Hirsch. The book is intended for 11 year olds. When I was eleven, I loved adventure and Indian stories, but I read everything adults gave me. And this book would have grabbed me, would have touched me emotionally – at least after a high hurdle: the short, chilling opening chapter. It takes place in the Riga ghetto, where Else Hirsch was deported in 1942. It is presumably a homage to Else Hirsch, but it is unsuitable as an introduction to a story; it does not reveal what is to come, but merely conveys a vague idea of great suffering. Readers of this highly recommended book should skip the first three pages.