Friedrich

by Hans Peter Richter

Book Overview

"Superb, sensitive, honest and compelling . . . a simple but terrifying tale of the destruction of a single Jewish family."--The New York Times

Winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award

His best friend thought Friedrich was lucky. His family had a good home and enough money, and in Germany in the early 1930s, many were unemployed. But when Hitler came to power, things began to change. Friedrich was expelled from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140322051
• ISBN13: 9780140322057
• Release Date: May 1987
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.4" x 7.2"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

A Very Moving Book

This is a very moving stoty about Friedrich a young Jewish boy that lived during the Holicost as told through the eyes of his German best friend. I think it is a very good story for people to read because it teaches them how bad raceism has become. There is no difference between a Jew and a German. This is also a good book because it shows how Jews really were treated during World War II, and how families were so easily split apart. Altho it is a sad story, we all can learn from it.

Excellent Story!

There are so many great stories out there that one can find about Holocaust Europe. Although this story is written for younger ages, it is a great story none the less. Richter tells this story as a first person narrative writing in a simple but elegant way. It depicts the childhood of Richter and his friendship with his Jewish friend Friedrich. One really gets a good idea of the way Jews were treated in the 1930's and 40's by others influenced by the new Nazi party. Richter's story also gives you an idea of how the Holocaust tore apart families and friendships. This is an excellent story, that will really take you away with the author's excellent story telling and very personal narrative.

Tragic

I read this book just last night for summer reading for high school and I was captivated. This book covers about 15 or 16 years of the lives of a German boy's family and his best friend's family. Sharing the same apartment building, Friedrich's family is well off and his friend's is very poor. However, they still have their good times in a German city at the time of Hitler's rise to power as chancellor of Germany. The book is divided into short anecdotes that slowly progress from bad to worse, showing the cruel treatments of Jewish people by Germans. From the two boys experiencing the painting of signs on Jewish stores to mark them to Friedrich's dismission from school and a local pool because he is Jewish and his mother's death after their house is raided and ransacked. This book truely shows the selfish and cruel ways of the Nazis and their discrimination towards innocent people. There is a story were Friedrich and his friend attend a Party meeting (Party refering to Hitler's party) and a man in the Party tells of how the Jewish people used to sacrifice cows and showed no mercy and says the Jewish people were merciful and evil for doing this. Now don't I recall the innocent Jewish people being tortured and murdered by Nazis who showe dno mercy? The Nazis were hypocritical and evil, unmerciful, unhuman beings. This story stands as a testament of a boy who watched his mother die because of these people, who watched his father be deported, and who saw his everyday world shatter, only to end in Friedrich's own tragic death when a Nazi sympathizer, the man who owned the apartment building, denies Friedrich when he asks for shelter during an air raid. I highly recommend this book and urge you to read and it and never let this kind of thing happen again.

friedrich

friedrich is a jewish boy growing up in germany in the late thirties and early fourties.friedrich and his best friend live in the same apartment building, and do lots of things together.as friedrich gets older he gets kicked out of school becaue he is jewish.when he is thirteen or fourteen his mother dies and soon after his father gets arrested and he becomes an orphan.I think this is a book that states the facts and tells what really happend during hitlers time and what they did to jews.

A compeling novel you must have in your libraray

As a 12 year old student I decided to read "Friedrich" a novel about the holocaust and how it treats him. Hans is Friedrich best friend and the author of the book. He saw and heard everything that happened to Friedrichin the book. At frist, Friedrich is more fortune then his friend Hans, who is poor, but as you read on, freidrich's life changed. His father is fored to quit his job because Hitler doesn't allow jew to own a business. Friedrich is kick out of school becuase Hitler thinks Jew don't deserve an education. Worst when he's gone, the evil Nazis beat and killed his mother and sent his father to a concentreation camp. This book isn't all about Friedrich's torture. His friends and family help him by taking care of him and giving him a picture of his parents to remember them by. "Friedrich" is a compelling heart warming book. I rate it on a scale of 1-10 a 10, because this is the first novel I enjoyed. This book made me think about why God would ever let this happen. It almost made me cry, then I remembered how his friends helped him and it stopped the tears.