Hitler Trilogy #02: Pennies for Hitler

- Blurb -

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. His 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, who lives in a flat where children are not welcomed and whose job is 'sensitive'. Georg constantly wonders when he will hear from his mother, who has disappeared, hoping against hope that he will see her. As birthdays and Christmas 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.